Kauto Star claims fifth King George win

Kauto Star made racing history on Boxing Day by claiming his fifth King George VI Chase victory at Kempton Park, the first horse to achieve the feat in the 74-year history of the famous race.

The 11-year-old gelding, trained by champion trainer Paul Nicholls and ridden by Irishman Ruby Walsh, took up the running from the halfway stage of the three-mile contest to finish ahead of last year’s winner Long Run, with Captain Chris back in third place.

Kauto Star won the race four years in succession, from 2006 to 2009, but was well beaten last year by the younger Long Run, and retirement beckoned after Long Run, five years his junior, also proved victorious in jump racing’s Blue Riband chase — the Cheltenham Gold Cup — last March.

However, Kauto Star beat his rival in their prep race at Haydock Park earlier this season, and he confirmed his resurgent form with a comfortable victory on Monday, ensuring the 2012 Cheltenham Gold Cup will once again prove an intriguing clash between the pair.

Kauto Star and Desert Orchid (1986, 1988, 1989, 1990) shared the previous record of four victories in the race — the second most prestigious level-weights chase on the National Hunt calendar — but this victory means he is now out on his own with a remarkable five successes.

“It’s amazing, he is just the best,” Nicholls told reporters. “We knew we had him in serious order today and if he gets to Cheltenham in that form he’ll be the one to beat in the Gold Cup.”

Kauto Star has twice won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, in 2007 and again in 2009 when he became the first horse in history to regain the trophy.

However, he will turn 12 on New Year’s Day and only two horses in the 87-year history of the race have won it at that age.