Kauto Star: the extraordinary talent who became the benchmark for sheer undiluted quality

Owner Clive Smith, whose distinctive yellow, green and purple silks were made famous by the legendary Kauto Star among others, has died aged 82. In this archive feature, Alastair Down recalls the superstar chaser's greatest achievements upon Kauto Star's retirement. This article was first published in the Racing Post on November 1, 2012.

• Clive Smith, owner of jumps titans Kauto Star and Master Minded, dies aged 82 

• 'They were incredible years' - Paul Nicholls and Ruby Walsh pay tribute to owner Clive Smith 

With the retirement of the finest chaser since Arkle, the landscape of the coming winter will be missing its classiest act. The benchmark races will come round once more but the battles will be fought out by fresh pretenders to greatness because Kauto Star, the pre-eminent jumper of our times, has run his last.

It was almost eight years ago that Kauto Star, already the subject of suggestions he was special, had his first run in Britain at Newbury in the dying days of December 2004. He bolted up and was immediately installed as favourite for the Arkle.

A month later Paul Nicholls saddled him for a novice chase at Exeter.

Only two took him on and Kauto Star, having frightened away the horses before the race, then proceeded to scare the living daylights out of all of us during it. He was well clear when falling two from home and Ruby Walsh remounted. Despite his having no irons, the pair were beaten a rapidly diminishing short head.

He was injured that day and it was not until the following November's Haldon Gold Cup that he reappeared. But it proved to be one of those black days out of the blue with the death of Best Mate.

Although none knew it at the time, it was on that sad Exeter afternoon that jump racing, like some vast supertanker answering ponderously to the helm, began a massive change of course.

The age of Best Mate, winner of three consecutive Gold Cups and a King George, was at an end, and given his achievement none expected that a horse would arrive almost immediately who was to prove superior. But Kauto Star was to go on to win two Gold Cups and rack up a still barely believable five King Georges.

Kauto Star jumps the last under Ruby Walsh to win the 2006 Tingle Creek Chase at SandownCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

There were endless aspects of Kauto Star that are remarkable, not least the fact that to him firsts became second nature. In 2007 he was the first horse to be officially top rated at two miles, two and a half, and three, and that season was the first to win the £1 million Betfair bonus for landing the sponsor's big Haydock Chase, the King George and Gold Cup.

He was the first horse to regain his Gold Cup crown and, in 2009, the first to win four consecutive King Georges. His awesome performance when adding a fifth saw him power home 36 lengths clear – and beat Arkle's record winning margin that had stood the test of 44 Christmases.

In 2010 he was the first horse to win a Grade 1 chase in six consecutive seasons, before knocking off two more last season to take that run to seven. He made the improbable almost a matter of routine.

Yet he was a curiously slow-burn with me when it came to engaging the emotions and I can only apologise for being late to catch on. But eventually I fell for Kauto Star hook, line and sinker on one of the hardest afternoons he ever had when beaten by Denman in the 2008 Gold Cup.

Sent off a shade of odds-on to repeat his victory of the previous year, he couldn't hit a rhythm and made a litany of jumping errors. He never for a moment looked like winning but, with Ruby trying every trick in his book, Kauto Star never flinched and gave his all up every yard of that murderous climb. He hung on to second by a short head after an effort that fell little short of heroic.

I was in love with Denman back then and would have eloped with him had he asked, but my mind kept returning to the sheer indomitability of the runner-up, and it was then that my admiration for Kauto Star became twinned with affection. He wasn't merely a class act but a scrapper too.

Ruby Walsh celebrates after Kauto Star regained his Cheltenham Gold Cup crown in 2009Credit: Julian Finney (Getty Images)

And while it would be daft to say of a dual Gold Cup winner that Cheltenham wasn't his place, those two wins were his only victories there in seven runs. He fell in a Champion Chase and a Gold Cup, was twice placed in the big one and rightly pulled up on his farewell appearance there. Sheer class won him two Gold Cups and plain courage, the most priceless asset of the staying chaser, got him into the mix in another two.

Eventually his early capacity to make heart-juddering mistakes was ironed out and Ruby always swore that it was only when there was a sudden quickening of pace that he would occasionally thump one.

And just as Muhammad Ali had Angelo Dundee and Bundini Brown ever at his side, so Kauto Star had two brilliant corner-men in Nicholls and Clifford Baker, who came to know the old horse and his ways as well as those of their own families.

There was always a pugnacious quality about Nicholls' loyalty to Kauto Star. You could call Paul any name under the sun but woe betide anyone who questioned Kauto.

When Kauto Star was pulled up for the first time in his career at Punchestown in May 2011 there were immediate calls for his retirement. But you could just see Nicholls set his jaw and refuse to be hurried into any decision. He took his hero home, licked his wounds in private and saw what counsel a summer would bring.

And so it came to pass that Kauto Star, written off by many, returned to Haydock last November for the Betfair Chase with plenty muttering that it was all a big mistake, despite Nicholls' insistence that his long-serving ally was "ready to run for his life".

Crowds swarm to celebrate Kauto Star's fourh Betfair Chase successCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Gold Cup holder Long Run was sent off 6-5 favourite with Kauto Star easy to back at 6-1. The feeling was that the old warrior might be in for an honourable defeat followed by retirement after what could prove his last hurrah.

Well, they got the hurrah bit right. What followed was an intoxicating six-minute masterclass as, under a neck-or-nothing ride from Ruby Walsh, Kauto Star shrugged off the years and slammed the doubters. Jumping superbly, he made every yard and as he turned into the straight all happy hell broke loose as the crowd realised they were about to witness the wonderful. Going down to the last still a couple of lengths to the good over Long Run, he threw in a magnificent leap and powered away up the run-in.

Never has Nicholls been so animated in victory. From the crowd there was pure adulation for a horse who had just roared defiance at those with the temerity to suggest his flame was guttering.

They were still repairing the roof at Haydock when, five weeks later, Kauto Star lined up at Kempton for his sixth King George on a Boxing Day when good will was transferred from all men to one horse. In the previous January's King George Kauto was a tame third to the emergent Long Run and this time a surge of late money sent the Henderson horse off at evens to avenge his Haydock defeat.

Kauto Star wins the 2011 King George VI Chase, in which he beat Long Run for a record-breaking fifth victory in the Christmas showpiece at KemptonCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Oh ye of little faith! Kempton has never played host to scenes like it and the Racing Post's in-running comment, which is meant to provide a dispassionate chronicle of how a race unfolds, exclaimed: 'Jumped impeccably, prominent, tracked leader sixth, led 8th, stepped up pace from 12th, about four clear from 15th, never going to be caught after, ridden out flat, awesome.'

It is the 'awesome' that does it for me because that is what Kauto Star has been. He was durable and classy and was campaigned with a wonderfully open confidence and sureness of touch.

Kauto Star: the finest chaser since Arkle and whose name helps explain the magic of jump racingCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

To those born after the 1960s Arkle was a creature from black and white history, clearly magnificent, almost certainly the best, but not of their time.

For the newer generations, for all the wonderment of Desert Orchid or Red Rum, it is Kauto Star who will be the benchmark for sheer undiluted quality. When folk struggle to find the words to describe how extraordinary jump racing can be, it will be Kauto Star's name that is conjured up to help explain the magic.

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