Kauto Star
THE era of steeplechasers excelling at a variety of trips had all but run its course by the new millennium’s dawn. Desert Orchid was the last of this rare and exciting breed, and he had left the stage 10 years earlier.
This prompted the creation in 2005 of the Ryanair Chase, run over the intermediary distance of two-and-a-half miles. This prestigious new race plugged the distance gap between the two-mile Champion Chase and the Gold Cup over three-and-a-quarter miles. Yet just when the concept of one horse dominating over all distances seemed like wishful thinking, along came a bay gelding with a broad white blaze who would do precisely that.
Kauto Star had no truck with the Ryanair Chase. For six years from 2005 he was peerless over any distance. It all came alike to the steeplechaser who won the King George VI Chase a record five times, the Betfair Chase four times, the Gold Cup twice and the Tingle Creek Chase on both occasions he contested the two-mile feature.
“There’s no question he would have won several Champion Chases over two miles had we asked him to do that,” asserts his trainer, Paul Nicholls.
Needless to
