13th March 2009 - KAUTO HISTORY - GOLD CUP - Brough Scott

KAUTO HISTORY - GOLD CUP

Fulfilment and relief, those were the twin sensations as Kauto Star soared over the second last with history in his sights and with Denman in glorious, albeit unavailing pursuit. Of all the Cheltenham scripts this double act was the most wanted one.

On they came towards the final fence and the thrill of Denman getting this far and this well took away from the oft felt fear of a Kauto Star last fence howler. From the moment the starter had let the 16 strong posse career on to the track and gallop off towards the first of the 24 obstacles Ruby Walsh and Kauto Star had looked as safe in the air as they looked regal across the ground. In they sailed and you just knew that there should be no doubting.

There is a yearning in days like these. You walk the course early and note the clean, fresh ground kept free for what surely should be a victory carpet for a horse like Kauto Star. We have seen him turn over at the last fence first time as the game’s most brilliant two miler, we have gasped as he dived through the final fence on his first Gold Cup in 2007, we had admired his pluck as he struggled in Denman’s wake last March. But here was his patch. This was his race. The stage was set. You look out across to the timeless Malvern’s on the north western horizon and wonder if by sundown, Kauto and Ruby will have written the chapter which was surely their own.

The nearer you get the tenser you become. Clifford Baker himself leads Kauto round in the paddock, behind him Denman looks a lot perkier than he did at Kempton and keen enough on the canter down. Michael Dickinson is waiting between the last two fences along with master show jumper Nick Skelton now better known in this parish as father of Harry and Dan. They admire Kauto’s athleticism but sun-bronzed Michael assures us Denman cannot be himself until he has had a summer back.

But you have to load horses up with jockeys not reservations and soon we can see Sam Thomas take his place up behind pacemaking Neptune Collonges and, better still, have to notice the easy power with which he reaches for and powers over his fences. Watching on the big screen and then when the field thunder past after a circuit it is the Denman factor that fills the mind. Kauto Star is moving and jumping easily along the inside. You feel he has to. That bit is in the script.

What isn’t is the way Denman attacks going up the hill. At the last ditch he comes up a long, long way just as in last year’s annus mirabilis. Swinging off the top of the slope, he puts it up to Neptune Collonges and Kauto Star. Five weeks after that that fatefully feeble comeback this is redemption time. You hardly cared that Ruby and Kauto appeared to be cruising beside them. Denman was still a racehorse, now Kauto Star could do his history dance.

What a turn it was, what a horse he is. 31 races, 18 victories, one and three quarter million of earnings; we thought we had written his story. It seems now that we have hardly begun. A wave of euphoria swept over all of us at Cheltenham, then on the walk back we saw Sam Thomas dismounted from Denman. He was not lame but he was very, very weary. All the way to the washdown we followed him, the worry rising that something bad might ruin it all.

But finally he began to perk up and guzzle from his water bucket. Then Kauto Star came out of the dope box and the pair circled just as they had a year ago. Next March’s re-match will be worth living for.