Blast From The Past: Five King Georges

There were calls in some quarters for Kauto Star to be retired after his defeat in the 2010 King George (which was run in January that year due to frost and snow) after he was beaten twelve and seven lengths by Long Run and Riverside Theatre, and didn’t travel or jump with his trademark fluency. He then filled the same place behind Long Run in the 2011 Cheltenham Gold Cup (long-time rival Denman in second), but those calls were renewed when he was pulled up in the Punchestown Gold Cup on his final start of that season.

Any idea that Kauto Star might resume his reign as king of the steeplechasers after slipping right down the rankings in 2010/11 must have seemed fanciful to all but his most optimistic supporters, but his trainer Paul Nicholls claimed before his comeback run in the Betfair Chase – a race Kauto Star was attempting to win for the fourth time – that Kauto Star was `fitter than I have ever had him at this stage of the season . . . Long Run [making his seasonal debut] might not be cherry ripe, but there will be no excuses from our side, if Kauto Star runs moderately then I suspect he will be retired.'

Kauto Star beat Long Run by eight lengths at Haydock, producing his best effort on ratings since he won the 2009 King George, and the fact that he was able to bounce back quite so strongly in the autumn of his career added emphasis to the fact that he was one of National Hunt racing’s all-time greats.

However, it was one thing to turn back the clock in the Betfair Chase against an opponent who was almost certainly not at concert pitch, but it would surely be much tougher for Kauto Star in the King George VI Chase, the widely acknowledged mid-season championship for the staying chasers. Kauto Star had been at 16/1 in the ante-post betting for the King George VI Chase before he ran at Haydock and connections did not immediately commit him to Kempton. `We had him primed for the Betfair and everyone has got to be a bit patient,' said Paul Nicholls. `If I am not happy with him at Christmas, I assume we will go for the Gold Cup.'

The five-week turnaround between the Betfair and the King George was enough for Nicholls to get Kauto Star ready in the end though, and he was the choice of Ruby Walsh, who could have ridden dual Champion Chase winner Master Minded, who deserved his chance to show whether he stayed three miles.

Kauto Star’s impressive appearance and relaxed demeanour in the paddock before the 2011 King George were in marked contrast to the previous year when he failed to take the eye and seemed ill at ease. As well as Long Run (the even-money favourite) and Master Minded (11/2 third favourite), Kauto Star (3/1) also faced the previous season's Arkle winner Captain Chris and the high-class pair Somersby, runner-up to Master Minded at Ascot, and Nacarat, who has a particularly good record at Kempton; the line-up was completed by 66/1-shot Golan Way. Ridden for stamina, as at Haydock, Kauto Star was in front before halfway and began to stretch the field after the twelfth of the eighteen fences. His faultless jumping was again an asset and he was four or five lengths clear approaching the third last, still moving fluently while Long Run couldn't quite match his jumping and was beginning to struggle to keep up. Kauto Star maintained the gallop in the home straight and always had the measure of Long Run who was, nonetheless, closing strongly towards the finish. Kauto Star held him off by a length and a quarter to become the first horse to win the King George VI Chase five times, surpassing the record he had previously shared with Desert Orchid.

The day would have been a bitter-sweet one for Paul Nicholls, given that Master Minded suffered a career-ending tendon injury during the race, but his achievement in getting Kauto Star back to such a high level cannot be underestimated. ‘He has looked fantastic this season and seems better in himself. Last year he bled here and was out on his feet at the end, but he's come in this time and is not even having a blow,' said Nicholls after the race. `He can't have been right last year and, in hindsight, I think it might have taken him last season to get over that horrific fall in Imperial Commander's Gold Cup.'

We are on course for a seven-runner King George again this year, as last year’s winner Cue Card – still one year younger than Kauto Star was when he won in 2011 – attempts to hold off the challenge of his younger stablemate and Gold Cup favourite Thistlecrack. Read Nic Doggett’s preview of this year's race here.