'Once-in-a-lifetime' horse

CHELTENHAM REVIEW: Ruby Walshreflects on a week that saw him regain the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Kauto Star and finish as leading jockey with seven winners

RUBY WALSH branded Kauto Star a “once-in-a-lifetime horse” after giving him a second totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup victory in three years.

Reflecting on Friday’s glorious triumph when the Paul Nicholls-trained gelding became the first horse in history to regain chasing’s blue-riband prize, Walsh revealed that he never lost faith in Kauto Star.

“It all happens so quick on him to think about his mistakes of the past,” said Walsh. “I know when you are watching on TV you have time to think about that, but you don’t on board. It doesn’t cross your mind.

“He was spectacular on the day, he jumped from fence to fence.Obviously it hurt me last year. I could have ridden Denman and, on the day last year, Denman was just unbelievable.

“Following him, he had all of us on the stretch from so far out. But I always believed in Kauto and I was delighted that he showed everybody that he is the sort of horse I think he is.

“He’s been a once-in-a-lifetime horse for me, three King Georges, two Betfair Chases and now two Gold Cups,” the rider said.

Walsh, top jockey at the festival with a record seven winners, also looked back on a famous repeat success in the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Master Minded in the Kauto Star colours of Clive Smith.

“Master Minded didn’t feel quite as good as last year but this year was probably a better race,” Walsh remarked.

“I wasn’t quite sure how I was going down the back, to tell you the truth, but one thing about Master Minded is that he is rock-solid.

“Even though I didn’t think he was at his best the other day he still won – he’s reliable and he’s honest. He’s a very, very good two-mile chaser.

“The one thing we thought about Master Minded when he arrived from France is that he was a fraction brave, he was standing off his fences too far.

“On his first run in England he stood way too far away from the ditch and landed in the middle of it. If you want him to keep popping and popping you have to get him into a rhythm because if you did start to wind him up he might take a chance.”

Walsh just missed out on a rare treble as Celestial Halo was beaten a neck by Punjabi in the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle.

“He ran his heart out. In fairness to Paul, he had him absolutely spot-on,” added Walsh.

“He jumped like a stag.

“Obviously he bungled the last a little bit but he tried his heart out and ran an incredible race.”

Walsh also believes Cooldine has to markedly improve to trouble Kauto Star in next year’s totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup. The Willie Mullins-trained gelding showed himself to be the best of the staying novice brigade with a 16-length victory in the RSA Chase at last week’s festival.

“We think he is a horse with a big future but, on official ratings, he is on 161 and Kauto is still on 184,” said Walsh.

“On the book, Cooldine will have to improve to figure next year.

“You can only judge a horse on what he is beating and Cooldine couldn’t have been more impressive.

“When he beat Forpadydeplasterer in the Moriarty at Leopardstown they might have looked to have been going slow, but it is a much stiffer track than a lot of people think it is.

“There is a serious pull from the third-last, which is probably why they always look to be going slower than they are,” said.

Walsh had wins on two other Mullins’ horses – Quevega in the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle and Mikael D’Haguenet in the Ballymore Novice’s Hurdle at Cheltenham.

“Quevega is a good little mare. Her form was rock solid, she was only a length behind Hurricane Fly in France,” he added.

“She won really well at Punchestown and she’s a very, very talented little mare.

“I don’t know what I’d ride in the Champion Hurdle if they both ran but, I quite like that Mares’ race for her so she doesn’t have to run in the Champion Hurdle.

“Mikael D’Haguenet is a very good horse. When we got there we were a bit worried about the ground because he’d been doing all his racing on soft ground but he handled it.

“He jumped, but he’s always jumped well and has a great turn of foot, it was a good performance.

“It was what we always thought he was capable of, but they still have to go and do it.

“He’s a horse with a really big future.”