Could Kauto Star rise to handicap challenge?
Perhaps Paul Nicholls is saving the best for last with Kauto Star.
This week it emerged that Kauto Star’s owner, Clive Smith, would be keen for his star horse to run in a handicap which might finally answer the question of just how good the horse really is.
When Kauto Star won the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park last December by a thumping 36 lengths Phil Smith, the BHA’s official handicapper, raised him to a rating of 193 which was later lowered slightly to 190 but still made him the best chaser seen for over 25 years.
That brought out the inevitable comparisons with Arkle but, with official handicap ratings not kept back in the 1960s, the only serviceable benchmark was the private handicapper, Timeform, who rated Arkle at 212 and stable companion Flyingbolt 210, with every other chaser at least 19lbs their inferior led by Kauto Star.
Smith has said that Kauto Star could be better than these figures but that theory could only really be put to the test if the horse was put to the test in a handicap. “I think the best way to get a fantastically high rating would be in a handicap,” Smith said at the end of last season. “I think that would be the methodology of achieving a hugely high figure. You’re giving 20lbs so you’re already 20lbs better than these horses before you beat them by 20 lengths. The average handicapper in Britain goes up 8lbs. So, if he was an average winner of the race in terms of the distances etc etc, you’d be looking at around the 198 mark.”
Thus far, despite the example of Denman’s two victories in the Hennessy Gold Cup, Nicholls has resisted the temptation to deviate from a season’s plan that has largely revolved around the King George and the Cheltenham Gold Cup. And with four victories in the King George and two in the Gold Cup it has been hard to fault the logic.
But both he and Smith are considering a change of tack after the horse begins his season in the Grade One JNwine.com Champion Chase at Down Royal on Saturday. “He’s in the Hennessy and Clive’s quiet keen to let him have a run in a handicap,” Nicholls said. “Saturday’s the main priority at the moment – get that over and done with and then it’s an option if we want it.
“He’s as fit as he was when he went to Haydock last year. We’re very happy with him, he’s worked nicely he’s got no Imperial Commander to take on and it’s a great place to start him. If he ran at Down Royal, ran in the Hennessy, the King George and then we go to the Gold Cup – it’s only four races in the season. He’s not getting any younger and it’s a possibility.”
The Down Royal race is shaping up to be the first major clash of the jumps season with Henry de Bromhead committing Sizing Europe to taking on Kauto Star.
Sizing Europe proved himself to be the leading two-mile novice chaser of last season when he won the Grade One Arkle Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival in March. De Bromhead brought him back in a conditions race at Punchestown last month, where he was beaten seven lengths by the race-fit China Rock.
That race was run a furling short of three miles but De Bromhead felt that Sizing Europe had been betrayed by a lack of conditioning rather than stamina although he did also say after the race that: “I think we’d like to know whether we’re going for three miles or two miles sooner rather than later.”
Speaking in his website De Bromhead said: “We are planning to run Sizing Europe in what looks like an ultra competitive renewal of The JNwine.com Champion Chase.
“He's been very well since Punchestown and has definitely improved for the run in terms of fitness. We're stepping him up in trip again and we're all very much looking forward to the race.”
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