Kauto fresh and well ahead of Bowl Kauto Star continues to give Paul Nicholls all the right signals ahead of his run in the totesport Bowl at Aintree on Thursday. The eight-time Grade One winner lost his Cheltenham Gold Cup crown to Denman last time, but remains fighting-fit and raring to go for the first day of the Grand National meeting. "It´s a long time until next November and a lot can happen between now and then. There is no reason not to run him and I´ve checked everything," said Nicholls. "He worked really well on Saturday and Ruby (Walsh) sat on him and schooled him this morning. "He´s really fresh and Ruby´s comment was that he obviously doesn´t like getting beat. "I was really happy after he schooled this morning. "To me he ran a cracker at Cheltenham, I think he probably ran a better race than in last year´s Gold Cup," the champion trainer told Racing UK. "He might just have been beaten on the day by an exceptional horse. I think he ran as good a race as he´s probably run." Nicky Richards has yet to decide whether to run course specialist Monet´s Garden in the Bowl or wait another 24 hours to unleash him in the John Smith´s Melling Chase. The popular grey won last year´s Melling, but would have to take on devastating Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Master Minded if going for the two-and-a-half-mile option. Richards said: "We just haven´t made our minds up yet which race to run in. We´re just going to think over the next 24 hours. "He´s probably better over two and a half miles but the main thinking is just that Master Minded was probably the most impressive winner we´ve seen at Cheltenham for a long time. "We want to try and choose the most winnable race, if that´s the right wording," Richards told At The Races. Richards has immense respect for Kauto Star but feels he might have had a tougher recent race than Master Minded - a factor that could influence his decision. Of Kauto Star, Richards added: "He ran a funny sort of race at Cheltenham. He looked like he was struggling a bit but to his great credit he finished well up the hill. "Monet´s has got a great record here and the main thing is that we´ve kept him fresh, we didn´t go to Cheltenham. "No doubt Paul trained both his horses for Cheltenham and you´d have to think Kauto probably had the harder race of the two. "It may swing us a little bit but I´m going to have a chat with David (Yates, owner) in the morning and see how the next 24 hours go before we make a decision."
