Kauto Star, Long Run and Grands Crus

Welcome to the New Year, which promises to be a very exciting year for racing, vino and foodie fans. Let’s start off 2012 with racing, following the brilliance of Kauto Star on Boxing Day who out jumped Long Run to become the first (and probably last horse) to win the King George VI chase five times we are all looking ahead to The Gold Cup. In 2011, King Kauto was more of an each way bet at 7-1, for the year ahead, he is now 4-1, because of his King George VI and Betfair Chase performances to achieve an incredible third Gold Cup win at Cheltenham in March. Initially, my post King George reaction was that Long Run deserves the favourite’s spot and will out stay Kauto up the Cheltenham hill, however now on further consideration, I feel that the mighty equine cocktail of winning the King George and Gold Cup as a 6 year old has taken something out of Long Run, which is hampering him versus a rejuvenated Kauto. It was also clear in the King George pre-race interview on Channel 4 that Long Run’s trainer Nicky Henderson thought he had his horse spot on, whilst

Nick Luck from RUKTV thought post-race that Henderson’s horse had run up to his mark. Long Run may not win on 16th March but he will finish in the first three with Kauto. Who will join these two championship horses in the first three? Despite the major thumbs down from Channel 4’s Morning Line team that Grands Crus should avoid the Gold Cup and be directed at the Royal Sun Alliance Chase – for which he is 5-2 favourite – I think he has a tremendous chance in the Gold Cup. I don’t normally approve of horses being aimed at championship races without the experience, however Grands Crus jumps smoothly, clearly travels well in his races, has some dash, likes Cheltenham and recorded a time three seconds faster than Kauto over the same distance at Kempton on Boxing Day. If the ground isn’t on the fast side then Grands Crus has a tremendous chance of joining Kauto and Long Run on the podium. As a final point, The Wine Tipster has not selected Grands Crus because of the name!The Wine Tipster took Cheltenham Gold Cup Kauto Star 4-1 win, Grands Crus each way 10-1 before Christmas with Grands Crus now at 7-1. Long Run remains 9-4 favourite and I have had a small wager on these three horses taking the first three places in any order.