As we build-up to Cheltenham Pageant week, we have a look again at one of the vital biggest Gold Cup winners of all time, Kauto Superstar, who was once the one horse to regain victory within the race after a foul run in between years.
Through Julian Muscat
The technology of steeplechasers excelling at plenty of journeys had all however run its route by way of the brand new millennium’s break of day. Desolate tract Orchid was once the final of this uncommon and thrilling breed, and he had left the degree 10 years previous.
But simply when the idea that of 1 horse dominating over all distances looked like wishful considering, alongside got here a bay gelding with a large white blaze who would do exactly that.
Kauto Superstar – for 6 years from 2005 he was once peerless over any distance. All of it got here alike to the steeplechaser who gained the King George VI Chase a file 5 instances, the Betfair Chase 4 instances, the Cheltenham Gold Cup two times and the Tingle Creek Chase on each events he contested the two-mile characteristic.
“There’s no query he would have gained a number of Champion Chases over two miles had we requested him to try this,” asserts his teacher, Paul Nicholls.
Remember that, we have now no longer observed his like since.
Jockey Ruby Walsh displays. “Kauto Superstar picked up two accidents as a tender horse and would have some heavy falls later, however it by no means worried him. He was once courageous, laborious and powerful of thoughts in addition to being bodily robust.”
The ones attributes was self-evident right through the 2006–07 season, when Kauto Superstar swept all ahead of him. He began by way of profitable over two-and-a-half miles ahead of Paul stepped him as much as 3 miles for the primary time within the Betfair Chase, by which he toyed with a high-class box to win by way of 17 lengths.
“That was once a special occasion,” Ruby says. “It informed us that he stayed; that he is usually a Gold Cup horse. He was once so robust, and I bear in mind considering: ‘That is other.’ I may really feel his energy in the course of the reins although I used to be seeking to preserve him, and I handiest quickened up for one furlong. There was once such a lot left within the tank. It was once fantastic.”
Kauto Superstar was once inexorably at the march, despite the fact that Paul made one final nod to the previous. Two weeks after the Betfair Chase, by which the pony gave the impression of a Gold Cup winner in ready, Paul audaciously saddled him for the Tingle Creek Chase again over two miles.
“Six days ahead of the Tingle Creek, I informed Ruby I used to be considering of operating him and he mentioned we’d spent all this time instructing him to settle; why take him again right into a velocity check?,” Paul relates. “Then Ruby rang me again two mins later to mention shall we all be useless the next day to come; let’s run.”
The result was once every other facile victory, and then Kauto Superstar gained his first King George VI Chase at Kempton – and 10 weeks later, his first Gold Cup at Cheltenham. It was once a flawless marketing campaign.
Lengthy Run and (nearside) Kauto Superstar at the first circuit of the King George VI
Kauto Superstar would dominate thereafter in spite of dropping his Gold Cup crown to stablemate Denman in 2008, when he installed a shoddy spherical of leaping. However he avenged that defeat the next yr when he strode blank clear of Denman to win by way of 13 lengths.
“He was once magnificent that day; he gained as he favored,” proprietor Clive Smith enthuses. “He was once the primary horse to reclaim the Gold Cup, having misplaced it the yr ahead of, and he was once given the absolute best [official] score of any horse since Arkle.”
A 3rd Gold Cup beckoned in 2010, however Kauto Superstar blundered badly at the first circuit ahead of he fell on the fourth-last. Then he misplaced his charisma of invincibility. He was once roundly crushed by way of Lengthy Run, 5 years his junior, in each the King George and the Gold Cup ahead of he was once ignominiously pulled up at Punchestown.
Kauto Superstar en-route to considered one of his King George VI victories
Then again, simply when he regarded spent, he got here once more the next season. Kauto Superstar introduced the home down in profitable his fourth Betfair Chase and his 5th King George, each instances from Lengthy Run.
“They have been the 2 races I loved maximum of all,” Paul says. “Folks have been pronouncing he must were retired and we have been being grasping. My neck was once at the slicing block however at house he was once within the type of his existence, indubitably as excellent going into his twelfth yr as at every other degree in his profession.”
Even supposing Ruby and Clive have been of a identical mindset, a training fall forward of the 2012 Gold Cup shook Kauto Superstar to the core. There can be no final implausible act in a profession of a couple of comebacks; Kauto Superstar was once pulled up early within the race and certain for retirement.
His legacy? “With none doubt he was once the pony of an entire life,” Paul says. “Along with his category, he was once sound and resilient whilst the likes of Lengthy Run and the others all fell away.”
Ruby does no longer hesitate to explain Kauto Superstar as the most efficient horse he rode in an extended and outstanding profession.
“He was once a celebrity who had such a lot velocity and skill,” he says, “and he stored on coming again. He was once simply a fantastic racehorse.”
As for Clive, the recollections linger.
“I used to be there for each considered one of his 31 races. I used to be worried when staring at him and was once at all times satisfied when he’d jumped the primary few fences, and then I wasn’t so involved for his protection. He was once completely particular; I used to be in awe of him.”
Paul isn’t overly sentimental himself however his voice drops an octave when requested what existence has been like since Kauto Superstar’s retirement.
“I’ve been fortunate sufficient to have had some excellent horses,” says the 12-time champion teacher. “It’s going to be nearly unimaginable to seek out every other like Kauto Superstar – however that gained’t prevent me attempting.”
Kauto Superstar and Denman ahead of the beginning of the Gold Cup on the 2008 Cheltenham Pageant
Kauto Superstar: how his tale began
Kauto Superstar’s tale was once punctuated by way of highs and lows during a stellar profession. It began in France, the place he gained 4 of his 10 outings ahead of his switch to Paul’s Somerset stables. His prowess was once such that he’d earned the sobriquet “l’Extraterrestre”.
France is the place Kauto Superstar would possibly have stayed however for an not likely series of occasions. In Would possibly 2004, 3 days ahead of Kauto Superstar gained a Grade 3 hurdle race at Auteuil, Clive left the public sale ring at Doncaster not sure whether or not to snort or cry. His bid of 520,000 guineas for Garde Champetre, a promising beginner hurdler, was once trumped by way of JP McManus, who’d bid an additional 10,000 guineas to safe the pony.
As a result, Clive had a stash burning a hollow in his pocket. He’d been alerted to Kauto Superstar’s availability and was once sufficiently to ship a vet to the stables of Serge Foucher, who skilled the pony in north-west France. However Kauto Superstar would no longer play ball.
“The vet rang me from France to mention Kauto Superstar had refused level clean to be scoped,” Clive remembers of the process to evaluate a horse’s respiring mechanism. “That had came about ahead of, it seems that. Folks had attempted to shop for him however pulled out as a result of it. After the consequences have been defined to me, I assumed: ‘Neatly, let’s purchase him anyway.’”
Six months after Kauto Superstar’s arrival in Britain, Paul rang his strong jockey, Ruby, with the promise of a festive present.
“I entered the pony at Newbury simply after Christmas and informed Ruby I had one thing for him to sit up for,” Paul relates. “And I’ll at all times bear in mind the smile on Ruby’s face when he got here again into the winner’s enclosure. He didn’t want to say anything else.”
Ruby was once blown away.
“It was once a excellent beginners’ chase and he completely bolted in,” he says. “It was once like he by no means got here out of moment tools.”
For all that, Ruby didn’t really feel Kauto Superstar was once a legend within the making.
“I used to be simply hoping he would make up right into a horse for the Arkle Chase [for two-mile novice chasers],” he remembers. “I had no concept he would cross on to succeed in what he did.”
Then calamity struck. Kauto Superstar was once cantering to victory on his subsequent get started at Exeter when he fell on the second-last. Ruby scrambled to remount, and then the mix rallied, in spite of a final-flight blunder, to return up narrowly quick in a photo-finish. Insult was once added to damage when Kauto Superstar returned house with a hock fracture that sidelined him for 10 months.
Paul believes the setback would possibly were a blessing in cover.
“It indisputably didn’t do the pony any hurt,” he suggests. “It intended he had a number of time to fill out. He simply were given larger, higher and more potent.”
There have been problems on every other entrance, on the other hand. Kauto Superstar was once proving a handful, such a lot in order that when he moved into the highest backyard at Ditcheat in the summertime of 2005, no one sought after to trip him out. The duty was once after all delegated to Clifford Baker, a former jockey and Paul’s long-standing right-hand guy.
“He was once sharp when he was once out within the lanes,” Clifford relates, “however I’ll by no means omit the primary time I rode him at the gallops. He went from one finish to the opposite and gave me a really feel I’d by no means had from every other horse, ahead of or since. He tanked all of the manner up the hill – and he’d handiest been in for per week. I used to be amazed.”
In hindsight, those formative essays have been the making of Kauto Superstar. He was once proud and impetuous, having proved tough to wreck in. Nice retailer was once set in encouraging him to chill out, despite the fact that he was once an excessive amount of his personal guy to acquiesce totally.
“He hated visitors,” Clifford remembers. “Sooner or later he kicked a automobile at the highway and put the largest dent within the door you’ve ever observed. He’d frequently whip spherical and take me the unsuitable manner, ducking about far and wide, but if he was once at the gallops he was once an actual professional.”
Clifford isn’t susceptible to take horses into his center, however Kauto Superstar was once other.
“I rode him for the most efficient a part of 8 years,” Clifford relates. “We had our hiccups right here and there, however he was once an actual excitement to trip. I’d by no means been sentimental a couple of horse ahead of him, and I haven’t been since.”
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Credit score: JOHN GROSSICK PHOTOGRAPHY
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Credit score: Sportsfile by way of Getty Photographs
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