Cheltenham Gold Cup 2007

The 2007 Cheltenham Gold Cup marked the ascent to the pinnacle of the steeplechasing world of Kauto Star, who, at the time of writing, 13 years after he ran his last race, remains the joint-fourth highest-rated steeplechaser of the Timeform era, alongside Mill House and behind only Arkle, Flyinbolt and Sprinter Sacre. Having already won the Betfair Chase at Haydock in November and the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, Kauto Star was sent off 5/4 favourite to complete the Stayers Chase’ Triple Crown and collect the £1,000,000 ‘Betfair Million’ bonus for conections.

The seven-year-old, trained by Paul Nicholls and ridden by Ruby Walsh, did so in fairly straighforward fashion, although he did keep his supporters on their toes by hitting the final fence when already looking the likely winner. Nevertheless, he stayed on strongly on the run-in to beat his nearest pursuer, 9/2 second-favourite Exotic Dancer, by 2½ lengths, with 40/1 outsider Turpin Green, who ran the race of his life, the same distance back in third place.

Attempting a distance beyond three miles for the first time in his career, Kauto Star demonstrated an impressive turn of foot from the second-last fence. Winning jockey Walsh was embullient in his appraisal of the performance, saying, ” He got there easily enough, there was just a little doubt about whether he would get home or not, but thankfully he did. That [the Cheltenham Gold Cup

] is the greatest race and he has won it easily. People have been asking if he would stand up or not, but he has proved it under pressure now and landed a £1million bonus in the process.”