Kauto Star is undoubtably a very, very nice horse but to compare him to Arkle this early on is quite alarming. Kauto still has a long way to go to get anywhere near Dessie or Arkle (i know official ratings suggest otherwise) but its only a matter of time before he takes a crashing fall. He was lucky that Kempton was up and running, he wouldnt have stood up at many of the other tracks in this country, Kempton fences are not as firm as many, which allowed him to go right through it as you saw from the pictures.
I would still like to see what he does on quicker ground before i say he is a complete machine. The times he has encountered fast(er) ground he has fallen........ jumping at pace does get the better of him.
His Tingle Creek win impressed me the most out of his wins this year so far. The King George looked very good but im slightly concerned about what the form might amount to with the proximity of Exotic Dancer who had only ran in graded handicaps before boxing day. Monet's Garden didnt run his race and he is obviously better at 2 1/2 miles. In the Tingle Creek, Kauto showed he can jump well (his jumping at the railway fences was great) and they are very hard to jump at speed, and he showed a great change of gears too.
In the Betfair chase at Haydock he showed he stayed the 3miles but that was it. The horses he beat on that occasion were either passed their best or didnt perform (Beef Or Salmon, for whatever reason cant perform in England).
I cant see Kauto Star winning the Gold Cup the extra 2 1/2 furlongs around cheltenham is a big concern as well as the good or faster ground and the good gallop they go for such a race. He definitley is not value at the current odds.
As far as age goes for hurdlers and steeplechasers, in the UK a horse cannot run in a hurdle race until it is at leat 3, and most of the 'true' 'national hunt' bred horse dont enter the hurdles scene until four.
The youngest a horse can run in steeplechase races in the Uk is 4 but there are very few that actually do this (Paul Nicholls often does it though) most dont start steeplechasing until at least the age of 5 and usually not until 6 or 7.
In France it is different as three year olds can run in chases, i think.
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