Will Kauto Star succeed in defending his Gold Cup against 2008 winner and stablemate Denman? asks EILEEN BATTERSBY
HISTORY BECKONS yet again at Cheltenham. Kauto Star, now 10, makes his bid for immortality this afternoon as he defends the Gold Cup he reclaimed so magnificently last year. Against him is his stablemate, Denman, also 10, who defeated him in 2008. Both are trained by Paul Nicholls, whose yard is in the Somerset village of Ditcheat; he started out with eight horses – now he trains 150 and could provide the first five finishers today in this race of race.
Even people with only a passing interest in racing share the Gold Cup excitement of hardened racegoers; Cheltenham is magic and it is also more or less Irish property. Kauto Star and Denman are British-owned and trained. But that won’t stop Irish hearts pounding; the Gold Cup is about passion, emotion and Arkle, a legendary genius who once graced the planet and remains the king. No matter who wins, the victor will be measured against the Irish hero’s three consecutive victories carrying top weight.
The central protagonists are friends and very different; the French-bred Kauto Star, always destined for greatness, is elegance on four legs, an aristocrat who enjoys a photo-shoot. Denman, foaled in Co Cork, not far from where steeplechasing was born in 1752 through two rival horse owners, began his career in point-to-points in Ireland. If Kauto Star is an artist, the shy Denman is a street-fighter, the horse you want to take home.
When Kauto Star won his first Gold Cup in 2007, it was within a year of War of Attrition, within two years of Kicking King, and within three years of the Best Mate era, which had culminated in three consecutive wins.
In 2008, Kauto Star returned god-like to Cheltenham’s hill-ringed natural amphitheatre in Gloucestershire, only to be humbled by Denman’s merciless demonstration of relentless front running. It was a display of such emphatic determination that all one could do was gasp and stare at the power. A broken Kauto Star still finished second.
Last year the defeated champion returned and regained his crown in style worthy of Hollywood. It is the definitive stamp of greatness to come back from defeat. National Hunt horses are warriors; their careers last longer than their flat-race counterparts. They impose themselves on the communal imagination; think of Desert Orchid, the 1989 Gold Cup winner.
A mercurial flat race wonder such as Sea the Stars triumphed on youthful exuberance as well as genius. Gladiators such as Kauto Star, with 20 wins from 33 starts, and Denman, with 14 wins from 19 starts, know all about the sheer physical pain of victory as acutely as they have experienced the bewildering numbness of defeat. Imperial Commander and Tricky Trickster hover in the wings.
Crippling arthritis claimed Arkle at 13. Best Mate died of a heart attack in a race at Exeter on November 1st, 2005. It is a tough sport. Whoever wins, there will be tears as well as cheers, and the victor will be measured against two mighty Irish ghosts, one a giant.