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Nicholls not giving up Kauto hope

Kauto StarKauto Star
© Photo Healy Racing

Trainer Paul Nicholls says it's not a "foregone conclusion" that Kauto Star will miss the Cheltenham Gold Cup on March 16.

The two-time winner of the big race fell in schooling at Ditcheat last Friday and on Thursday evening Nicholls revealed he was only 50-50 to make the line-up at Prestbury Park.

The champion trainer isn't giving up hope, but stressed his stable star must be in peak condition again to bid for a third Gold Cup.

"He's been sound ever since - he cantered on Saturday and he's cantered every day since," Nicholls told Sky Sports News.

"It was only when I got back from Cheltenham Media Day on Wednesday evening that Clifford (Baker) my head lad, who rides him every day, said: 'he's going okay but it's 50-50 in my opinion, he might not get Cheltenham' so I rang Clive (Smith) and said I thought we needed to tell everybody the situation we were in. That's why we did it. We're just hopeful."

"He's having physio already this morning. He's going to canter as normal today. We're hoping we can get him there. There's just a chance that we might not be able to get him there so we thought we'd better let people know."

"It's very minor, he's just a little stiff. It's like anything, as you get a bit older and you take a little knock, it takes longer to get over it. If you paraded him out here now, no-one would know anything was wrong with him. It's just a feel Clifford gets riding him. It's very minor and it's getting better every day.

"We're still hopeful, we've still got a fortnight. He needs to be at his very very best to run in the race. That's what we need to get him at. There's just a chance he might not."

Nicholls said connections had hoped Kauto Star would be fine in the immediate aftermath of the fall, but all that changed on Wednesday.

"The first time he's ever fallen schooling at home. He got up straight away, walked back. On the Saturday he cantered as normal. We were thinking he was going to be absolutely fine.

"It was only really Wednesday evening that Clifford said to me there was a chance, it's 50-50 - he might not get there."

With his last Gold Cup victory coming in 2009 and now aged 12, many feared Kauto Star's were best days behind him.

But the brilliant Ditcheat inmate has rolled back the years this season - defeating 2011 Gold Cup hero Long Run in both the Betfair Chase and the King George.

And Nicholls still has hope that he will be lining up to bid for more big-race glory on March 16.

"He's been in seriously good order. It's not a foregone conclusion, with bruising like this it changes daily. There's still a great chance. The big day will be a week Saturday when he does his last strong bit of work before the Gold Cup. He needs to thrill Clifford and Clifford to say he's right back to normal.

"Having had a fall he's got to have a school. He was just following his normal procedure. Three weeks before a race he's always had a school. He would have had another a week before. He will definitely have another school."