Horse Racing: Kauto Star Cleans Up at Awards

The British Horseracing Board placed a strict embargo on advance details of yesterday's Anglo-Irish Jump Racing Awards but it was one of the more futile gestures in the history of media management. The Café Royal has not seen many riots in its long history as a caterer to the rich and famous but if any name other than Kauto Star had emerged from the envelope for Horse of the Year, they would have been picking pieces of chandelier from the carpet for months to come.

Kauto Star swept the steeplechasing board at yesterday's ceremony, named not just as the Horse of the Year for 2006/07 and the champion staying chaser, but also as the best chaser at both two miles and two and a half miles. His connections picked up a cheque for £200,000 for his victory in the BHB's Order of Merit. Most important of all was the sense that, while he won six out of six and a Gold Cup last season, he remains an emerging talent.

"It doesn't matter what the trip or the conditions are, he just keeps on doing it," Phil Smith, the BHB's senior jumps handicapper, said. "The fact that he can top all three of our distance categories speaks volumes both for his own versatility, and for the sporting instincts of [Paul Nicholls] his trainer and [Clive Smith] his owner.

"The average handicap chaser in Britain has 3.8 races a season but he has been unbeaten in six. The first of those at Aintree may not have been the most competitive race ever, but he still won a handicap from a mark in the high 160s.

"He has been rated as 179 over three miles plus and, in eight years of compiling these figures, the only chaser we have rated higher is [the two-miler] Moscow Flyer on 180 two years ago."

There can be no argument with the pre-eminence of Paul Nicholls' chaser at any trip. Voy Por Ustedes was a convincing winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase over two miles at Cheltenham in March, but when he took on Kauto Star in the Tingle Creek Chase over the same trip, he was comprehensively beaten.

"This is the first time since 2000 that the Champion Chase winner has not been the top two-miler," Smith said. "His winning distance in the Tingle Creek was seven lengths and Voy Por Ustedes was making his seasonal debut, but we have given him credit for double that. It was really a question of when to stop, as you could look at the race in some ways and give him a rating that's off the radar."

The status of top hurdler last year was shared by Sublimity, the Champion Hurdle winner, and Hardy Eustace, the champion in 2004 and 2005, while the top novice chasers were Denman (161) over three miles plus and My Way De Solzen (159) over both two miles and two and a half.

Ron Cox's tip of the day


Megalo Maniac 5.00 Southwell

This four-year-old has taken a shine to Southwell's fibresand surface and can follow up his impressive display here last week. Richard Fahey's charge used his early pace to hold a good position before striking the front at the furlong marker to score snugly. He should have no problem carrying a 6lb penalty and can stretch his unbeaten record round here to three this afternoon.