Kicking King To Miss Cheltenham

KICKING KING will miss the Cheltenham Festival after returning an unsatisfactory scope on Tuesday morning.

The seven-year-old was a general 7-1 chance for the Totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup after winning the Stan James King George VI Chase at Kempton last time.

However, trainer Tom Taaffe confirmed: 'Kicking King will not run in the Gold Cup due to having not scoped well this morning.'

Kicking King was also entered in the Daily Telegraph Festival Trophy Chase over two miles, five furlongs and connections had not made a decision on which race he would tackle.

With Cheltenham now off the agenda, Taaffe is hopeful that Kicking King will make a quick recovery with connections already eyeing a chance of some consolation at the Punchestown Festival.

'We felt that we didn´t have enough time to get him back on track before Cheltenham so he won´t go for the shorter race either,' said Taaffe.

'Hopefully we will have him right again for the Punchestown Festival at the end ofApril.

'Nothing has been apparent with the horse, he just didn´t scope well. The horse always tells you when to run and unfortunately he´s saying not to.

'It´s disappointing but these things happen and we hope to have him back for Punchestown.'