'The Kempton original' - Which King George winners have run well in Gold Cup The King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day is the biggest race of the festive season in Britain and traditionally viewed as the second-biggest staying chase of the season behind the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The King George is three miles around Kempton, a flat track that leans more on speed over stamina, whereas the Gold Cup is three-and-a-quarter-miles around Cheltenham with its notoriously stamina-sapping hill to climb to the finish. They are different tests but, still, the dream for connections is to have a horse that can excel in these two major races. Here's our look back on some King George winners that have been able to bring their best to the Cotswolds showpiece. Kauto Star The King of Kempton, Kauto Star won a record five King Georges for trainer Paul Nicholls from 2006 until 2011, making the race his own despite a propensity in the early part of his career for a shuddering jumping mistake late in the race! King Kauto also won two Cheltenham Gold Cups, in 2007 and 2009. He finished second in '08 and remains the only horse ever to win the Cheltenham showpiece, lose it and then regain it. His incredible successes over trips ranging from two-miles to three-and-a-quarter-miles ensure Kauto Star is revered as one of the greatest chasers we've ever seen and he remains the most recent horse to bag both of these prizes, twice doing it in the same season - another standalone achievement. He ran in six Gold Cups, making the frame in four, and won five of six starts in the King George, also finishing third in the 2010 renewal. Best Mate Henrietta Knight's superstar, Best Mate completed a hat-trick of Gold Cup wins at Cheltenham from 2002-2004 - the first and so far only horse to achieve such success in the Cotswolds contest since the great Arkle. Best Mate was unbeaten as a chaser around Cheltenham, winning 4-4 there, and he won his King George at the second attempt. He finished second-best as Florida Pearl won in 2001, but went a spot better 12 months on, holding off Nicky Henderson's Marlborough as the reigning champ was back in fourth. Desert Orchid The Kempton original. Dessie is immortalised with his own statue at the Sunbury-on-Thames venue after David Elsworth's hugely popular grey won the King George four times in 1986, 1988, 1989 and 1990 in the hands of Simon Sherwood (2) and Richard Dunwoody (2). Like Kauto Star years later, Desert Orchid was good enough to win the Tingle Creek at two miles and the Gold Cup over three-and-a-quarter. He also had the stamina to bag the Irish Grand National in 1990. He'd finished second in the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1988, but wore down mud-lover Yahoo to land Gold Cup glory in 1989 and would finish third in the next two Gold Cups. Long Run Nicky Henderson's King George breakthrough came with Long Run in 2010 as he was famously partnered by amateur rider Sam Waley-Cohan for his father, the owner Robert Waley-Cohen. He matched Kauto Star by winning the Christmas showpiece as a six-year-old and would emulate him in the Cotswolds too just a few months later as his young legs condemned stablemates Denman (2nd) and Kauto Star (3rd) to minor roles. He's the only six-year-old Gold Cup winner since Mill House in 1963. Kicking King Hard to believe it given the current levels of Irish domination in National Hunt racing, but when Kicking King won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2005 he was just the second Irish-trained winner since Dawn Run was 'beginning to get up' in 1986. The Tom Taaffe-trained inmate was partnered by Barry Geraghty as they justified Gold Cup-favouritism in March 2005, sandwiched in between his King George successes, the second of which came at Sandown Park as Kempton was undergoing redevelopment. Limber Hill in 1955/56 for trainer Bill Dutton and Burrough Hill Lad for Jenny Pitman - both in 1984 - have also won the Kempton and Cheltenham showpieces. More recently, Cue Card and Might Bite have won the Kempton race and run well without success in the Cotswolds.
