Scotia considers trip?
All systems go for Kauto Star and Denman
PAUL NICHOLLS SPECIAL: STABLE STARS
HOPES that we could be set for another vintage jumps season were sent sky high on Sunday when Paul Nicholls vowed “to do everything possible to get Kauto Star and Denman back for the Totesport Gold Cup next March in the form of their lives”.
A Cheltenham decider between Britain’s two champion staying chasers would be the most eagerly awaited clash of the season and “so good for racing”, according to Nicholls, although he warned: “There are plenty of bridges to be crossed before we get there.”
The score in their Gold Cup head-to-heads is one apiece; Denman thrashed a slightly below-par Kauto Star seven lengths in the 2008 renewal before Kauto, the 2007 winner, got his revenge when regaining his crown last March after it was touch and go whether Denman made the line-up.
The chasing giants were accompanied by two-mile champion Master Minded when stealing the show at Nicholls’ annual owners’ open day in Ditcheat, held for the first time in two years after last year’s event was abandoned due to flooding.
For the 350 owners and invited guests present, the mere sight of jumping’s three top-rated chasers – between them the winners of 19 Grade 1s over fences and £3.43 million in prize-money – looking fresh and well, if not yet in the peak of condition, was enough to fuel anticipation that we may be on the verge of another memorable winter.
“Kauto Star looks great,” said Nicholls, “and is exactly where I want him. But he’s had a lot of mileage on the clock since he was three and I’ve got to look after him from now on. He’s best very fit and very fresh, so he may not have more than three or four runs this season.
“He’ll start off either in the JNWine.com Champion Chase at Down Royal on November 7, or the Betfair Chase at Haydock a fortnight later. I know I said after last year he wouldn’t go to Haydock again, but he’s won the Betfair twice already, so I can hardly say he doesn’t act round there. But Down Royal is the first option.”
Kauto Star will then bid to become the first horse ever to win four consecutive King Georges. The great Desert Orchid is the only four-time winner of Kempton’s Boxing Day showpiece, but that came during a five-year spell between 1986 and 1990 after his sequence was halted when Nupsala beat him into second in 1987.
“For Kauto to win it four times would be unbelievable,” said Nicholls, “but whatever happens at Kempton we’ll then keep him fresh for Cheltenham.”
The trainer had positive news of Denman, who will bid to put an up-and-down campaign in the last 12 months firmly behind him.
“All the signs are great,” said Nicholls. “We changed his training routine slightly. Since he came back I gave him an extra fortnight before he began cantering, to get him that little bit fitter before he started going up our hill. He’s now doing his two canters every day, which is just where we were this time two years ago.”
Denman, without a win in three runs last spring following his treatment for a fibrillating heart, is expected to make his reappearance in either the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury on November 28 or the Betfair Chase a week earlier.
“He’ll probably have a racecourse gallop first, and then we’ll decide where to go,” said Nicholls. “Obviously, the aim is to try to get him back to his very best, but after all the problems he had last season one is always a bit nervous. All I can say is he’s going the right way and I’m a lot happier with him now than at any stage last season.”
Master Minded is on course to reappear in a new 2m conditions race, the £50,000 Connaught Chase – backed by the Nicholls stable sponsor – at Cheltenham on November 15, the final day of the Paddy Power meeting. He’ll then try to repeat last year’s win in the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown.
Although the brilliant six-year-old was a perfect four from four last season, all of them Grade 1s, Nicholls admitted: “He wasn’t at his best in the spring, and I’m aiming to get him back in the form of two seasons ago. He wasn’t as easy to train last winter – he was so relaxed and laid-back he started to get a bit idle.”
That was put forward as a reason why he scraped home by a head from Big Zeb at Punchestown. “But I think he’ll have a huge season,” added Nicholls.
Of the other stable stars, Champion Hurdle runner-up Celestial Halo will be trained to go one better next March, although the trainer warned: “With the likes of Hurricane Fly and Solwhit coming through, I’m under no illusion this is a hard division this season.”
But he added: “Celestial Halo is young enough to have improvement in him, though he won’t have too many outings as he puts everything into his races.
He needs to be very fit each time he runs, and as he loves Cheltenham the Boylesports International in December will be his first major target. If he runs beforehand, he could go to Ascot for their Grade 2 hurdle in November.”
Big Buck’s will start the defence of his staying hurdle crown at Newbury on Hennessy day, reappearing in the Long Distance Hurdle prior to a crack at the Long Walk at Ascot in December.
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