Conditions Turning in favour of Kauto Star

Paul Nicholls believes conditions are very much turning in favour of Kauto Star as the nine-year-old bids to become the first horse to regain the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup crown.

Kauto Star looked set to dominate the blue riband for years to come when running out an impressive winner in 2007, but he had to give best to his stablemate Denman 12 months ago.

While the latter has endured well documented problems in the run-up to this year's renewal and was a big disappointment on his Kempton comeback, Kauto Star comes into the race on the back of his third success in the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day.

Nicholls saddled the first three home last year with Denman, Kauto Star and Neptune Collonges filling the places for the Ditcheat handler and he has solid claims of at least repeating the feat, as he is also responsible for Star De Mohaison and My Will.

"Kauto Star is fresh and well and has done everything right, while he's had a much better preparation this year," said Nicholls.

"He was beaten by a better horse on the day last year, but the statistic about no horse coming back to win the Gold Cup is there to be broken.

"The ground has come in his favour and he's in real good form. You couldn't go into a race with a horse better than he is at the moment.

"Denman won't mind decent ground, but I honestly don't know how he will run. There's no reason not to run him, but if he tanks off like last year, he won't get home. Sam (Thomas) will have to ride him as he finds him.

"The ground won't help Neptune Collonges, who likes plenty of cut in the ground, but he's in good form. Star De Mohaison will also like the ground. All being well after this, My Will will go for the Grand National."

Denman's joint-owner Paul Barber has his fingers tightly crossed that Denman can retain his title but admits he is not expecting a performance to match that of last year.

"I am looking forward to it. One hopes he is over his problems, but we won't really know until we run him over three miles two and a half furlongs tomorrow afternoon," said Barber.

"I would basically have said there were lots of things against him that day at Kempton. He wasn't fully wound up and I'm sure he's going to improve a lot on that.

"It's a long way to come from last year to this year. I'm not going to pretend that I'm expecting what happened last year is going to happen.

"Last year I thought we might win. This year I'm crossing my fingers."