kauto star 50/50 for gold cup

market suspended

Market suspended is very worrying following this news imo!

At least this horse is with a reputable handler and we can trust what he says, after all, KS did not drift in the market did he and this happened last week! If this was with henderson and co, he would have been 12-20 by the weekend!

was just thinking that seathestars

i'm stunned it happened last week and there was literally no sign of it in betfair's markets, nobody knew, nobody trading on the inside info, fair play to them

really hope he is well enough to get there

Betfair have suspended the RSA market on the back of it

Imo he couldn't be in better hands.

If he's not 110% then not a chance Nicholls will run him and I hope he doesn't if not A1.

Abit more here than one Sportinglife or Racing Post

Much-awaited clash with Long Run hangs in the balance after two-time Gold Cup champ - and long time second favourite for 2012 running - takes a 'tumble' at Ditcheat

There is no easy way to say this, but Kauto Star is only 50-50 to make the Cheltenham Gold Cup after a fall schooling.

As a trainer, it is all too easy to sit on information when it comes to your horses.

They have so many minor worries, niggles and setbacks - most of which turn out to be nothing of long-term importance - that you could be constantly updating on each of your string, to the press and the public, on a hourly, daily and weekly basis.

But our policy at Ditcheat is always to be up front and honest about the well-being of our horses - such as the coughing scare last week - and especially so when it is a public, and once-in-a-lifetime horse, such as Kauto.

In my opinion, the public have a right to know. In many ways, he is as much theirs, as Clive Smith's and ours.

So I am sad to report that his participation at the Cheltenham Festival is in doubt.

Kauto took a tumble when Ruby schooled him at the end of last week. I say tumble, but in truth it was a pretty awful fall.

Clive was obviously consulted at all times and we immediately got Kauto checked over. Even though he trotted sound, it was plain to see that he was sore afterwards.

He has had the best veterinary and physiotherapy care possible but we hoped that he would be showing more improvement by now.

I spoke to Clifford after returning to the stables after a Cheltenham media day yesterday, and he said Kauto still wasn't fully recovered, remained quite stiff, and in his wise words he felt he was "only 50-50" to make the Festival at this stage.

So I immediately spoke to Clive and we felt that it prudent that we put out this update today.

Next week is crucial for the horse.

He is still cantering each day but I can assure you right now that Kauto Star won't be going anywhere near Cheltenham unless we are all convinced - Clive Smith, myself, Clifford and the team here - that he is 110 per cent right.

Even if there is the slightest doubt in our minds, then he stays at home. No question. We will do what is best for the horse. Always have, always will. End of story.

But, along with Desert Orchid, I suppose if ever a horse has captured the public's love and imagination it is Kauto Star. We saw that when he won the Betfair Chase at Haydock.

It even had this old cynic bursting with pride for the horse, fighting back the tears on my proudest and most emotional day as a trainer.

So, of course, it will be devastating for all concerned if Kauto Star wasn't able up to line up on March 16 and try to win a third Gold Cup. Because he has been in the form of his life this season.

But one thing I think we have all learned with Kauto is never to write him off.

Yes, having this setback so close to the Festival is clearly a major concern, but don't confuse Kauto's kind and inquisitive nature with softness.

He is a hard so-and-so too - you learn to be when your best mate is Denman - and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if he was back firing on all cylinders at home before Cheltenham, and went on to beat Long Run for a third time this season.

But at this stage his participation does hang in the balance.

I know a lot of the press read this column, so I would just like to take this opportunity to say that this will be my only public comment on this subject today and I have nothing more to add at this stage.

But I will give daily updates on the horse from tomorrow onwards.

still hope for kauto supporters and top marks to ditcheat for keeping it a in house secret ,at least his price didnt drift alarmingly in the last week

So Paul Nicholls is a saint because the horse didn't drift on here?

Well wooperdy do!

The fall happened at the end of last week. I'm pretty sure I've seen some 'Never had Kauto better' headlines as recently as yesterday from the trainer - a trainer who has access to more media outlets than Katie Price does c0ck rmember - and he's somehow the hero here?

Anyone backing KS this week might not think so.

^ Agree rtb

Obviously there was no room for this news with the world interested in the handicap mark being released.

Weekend Runners   / Paul Nicholls / 25 February 2012 /

We have been getting on top of the coughing and it was good to have two winners yesterday.
Ruby was here on Friday morning to school some of our big guns. He schooled Kauto Star, Big Buck's, Al Ferof and Join Together to name but four and I was delighted with them all. Here's my views on my Saturday afternoon runners...

So he was delighted with Kauto falling and needing immediate treatment!!

Not good that,would have been better off saying what happened,what they are doing with him between now and Cheltenham,and letting the public decide what to do with their money.

Nicholls was in a no win situation imo.

With a horse the size of Kauto any news is bound to get magnified ten times.  Nicholls may secretly think Kauto is 80/20 to make it, but he is being cautious.  The truth is everyone is guessing what went on and what Nicholls thoughts are.

I appreciate people may be annoyed if they'd backed him last week - I would be, but if i was in Nicholls position I wouldn't know what to do.

They probably thought he'd just be stiff for a couple of days and it hasnt worked out how they thought


The "Delighted" quote was a bit off form though, shouldnt have quoted anything about Him

A bit off??

Its a blatant lie!!

I assume every horse that has a fall is " abit sore", but some may take a day or two to get over it, some may take a week, some longer.

It could be that Nicholls was waiting to see how Kauto recovered before releasing info.  If he released it, and then two days later there is no mark on him and its all systems go, he'll get slated by for scaring everyone and making people lay bets off etc.

For all we know, Kauto may have had a few falls in training but we don't know about them because he recovered within 3 or 4 days.  Maybe this time he thought he'd be OK but with age his body is taking longer to heal?  I don't know what went on, or the thought process that went through connections mind.

I remember when Woolcombe Folly took a crashing fall a week or so before his Arkle.  We only found out about that because it injured Sam Thomas.  If Sam Thomas got up OK we would never of known it had happened.

I don't think its as simple as people are making - Nicholls was in a very tricky situation.

Given it's 6 days since the fall could really do with some more information about the horse's current condition.

PFN is usually very open, more so than anyone I can recall. They know they had nothing to gain by withholding the info, they know they have a well earned reputation for openess, so whilst I do not condone it, I imagine it was not as straightforward as is being made out.

It clearly would have been straightforward to say he was 'delighted with all of those who schooled BAR Kauto Star who took a heavy fall and will be receiving treatment'. The fact that he did not makes me wonder what their private calculations were. Doubtles the next edition of his book will tell all. It is very sad news, I hope he makes it, he is in the right hands, but it does not look great.

The more I hear, the worse it sounds. 6 days after a fall and still showing ill effects sounds a pretty big worry to me.