With the countdown well and truly on to what promises to be yet another mouth-watering renewal of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, champion trainer Paul Nicholls has issued a very positive bulleting with regard to the wellbeing of his hugely popular former champion Kauto Star, the apparent main danger to the current title holder Long Run, writes Elliot Slater.
Even though the five-times King George VI Chase and dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner is now into the veteran stage at 12-years-old, Nicholls insists there are “no signs of aging” in the French bred superstar whose revival this season has been the talk of the industry. Written off last term after finishing a gallant third behind Long Run at Cheltenham and then looking a shadow of his former self when pulled up at Punchestown seven weeks later, many people anticipated that Clive Smith’s living legend would be retired, but Nicholls always insisted that something was amiss with Kauto Star last term and that he wanted to be given one more opportunity to put things right. Those following the latest ante-post Cheltenham Gold Cup odds will be glad he did.
His eight-length rout of Long Run on their respective seasonal reappearances at Haydock in November in the Grade 1 Betfair Chase prompted some of the most emotional scenes on a racecourse for some years, and his subsequent one-length defeat of the reigning champion in landing his fifth win in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day assured Nicholls’ star of his place high in the pantheon of all-time great racehorses.
Although many judges perceive the extra distance and stiffer track at Cheltenham as likely to suit Long Run (9/4f) better than Kauto Star (4/1), Nicholls is keen to assure punters that his horse will go to Cheltenham with a massive chance of following up his victories in the blue riband event in both 2997 & 2009, and will once again make the favourite pull out all the stops.