It is not just the partnership Walsh has with the reigning Gold Cup champ but it’s the finesse Kauto Star shows throughout his races. Gone are the days of the ten-year-old making a howler at one of his fences, as he did in his youth.
His precision over a fence is sublime and when Walsh wants the gelding to pick up and give him a big jump, he duly obliges and gains a few lengths on his rivals.
With this impeccable jumping and brilliant turn of foot, it will have to be an extra special performance by Denman, almost parallel with his 2008 success, to even get within 10 lengths of Kauto Star.
Whilst Kauto Star has had the perfect preparation, Denman has had far from it, after coming to grief in the Aon Chase at Newbury.
The Tank, as he is called in some quarters, made a spectacular reappearance when carrying top weight to win the Hennessy Gold Cup by 3 ½ lengths from stablemate What A Friend.
However, he was just supposed to go to Newbury and win at a canter in the Aon Chase. Three quarters of the race in and this was true, Denman was bowling along in front under AP McCoy but four fences from home made a terrible mistake and McCoy just about kept the partnership intact.
That mistake knocked all the stuffing out of him and at the next fence, rose far too early and sent the champion jockey careering out the side door to the shock of all punters.
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