Written off by many punters who bet on racing after being beaten into third in last season’ King George VI Chase and Gold before pulling up on his final outing of the season at Punchestown, Kauto Star has returned to the fray this season arguably as good as he s ever been in twice handing out a beating to the last year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Long Run.

Assumed to be the fitter of the two when scoring by eight-lengths in a highly emotional Betfair Chase on his first outing of the term at Haydock in November, the Clive Smith-owned French bred gelding put up another astounding performance when again proving good for the five years young current champion in landing the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day for the fifth time in his career, beating Long Run by a length-and-a-half.

Nicholls cannot believe just how well the old boy is at present and reports him to have put on weight since the Kempton contest and to be working with as much, if not more zest than ever before. The Ditcheat handler also observes that in his opinion Kauto star has never looked better in his coat and that despite sub-zero temperatures the horse is itching to get out on the gallops and prepare for his next outing.

Bookmakers rate Long Run the favourite to score at Cheltenham at 5/2 but horse racing tips are also backing Kauto Star,(who was as big as 20/1 for the race at the start of the season), who is now a rock solid 4/1 second favourite to make yet more history by winning back the title he first landed in 2007 and won again in 2009.

Already twice a winner from three starts this season, Prospect Wells is one of those select few Graham Wylie owned horses that has moved south to the yard of Paul Nicholls from the now defunct yard of Howard Johnson operation. The six year old has it seems, progressed nicely at Ditcheat, and although he had to be content with second place in the Grade 2 Sharp Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham last month, he put up a good show against the winner, Steps To Freedom, who is the current antepost favourite for the Supreme Novices Hurdle. Prospect Wells is currently the 7/2 favourite to win Saturday’s race.

Next best in the market is the Nicky Henderson trained representative, Gibb  River, with odds of 9/1. Henderson of course has saddled three winners of this race in the last ten years including the last two, Sentry Duty in 2008 and Jack The Giant in 2007. Gibb River seemed to have made the transition from the flat to hurdles last season with absolute aplomb, winning three times on the bounce in non-pattern races. However he was clearly outclassed in the Supreme Novices Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival back in March and was also beaten into third place, first time out this season in a Listed race at Sandown a fortnight ago. He should improve for that run and now in handicap company, he has to be in with a decent chance.

Following his excellent effort last week in the Grade 2 International Hurdle at Cheltenham over 2m5f, the Paul Nicholls first string entry, Brampour, despite carrying top weight, should have enough class about him to get close. The 10/1 shot was beaten into third place in the ‘International’ by  the very classy Grandouet and the hugely improved Overturn but as only a four year he has to be given great credit.

Based on his second place behind Steps To Freedom at Punchestown in October, the Edward O’Grady trained Sailors Warn has to be in with a big chance, despite only being 12//1 in the market. He was only 1¾  lengths behind Steps To Freedom in that race and came up against another ‘good thing’ Unaccompanied from the Dermot Weld stable next time in a Listed race over 2 miles at Naas. He was beaten three lengths in that but the winner is a hugely classy novice who was second behind the brilliant Zarkandar in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham back in March.

Sailors Warn would appear to have a better chance than the other 12/1 shot in the race, Raya Star from the Alan King yard, who finished third last time out in a Listed race over 2m1f at Newbury, beaten in that race by over ten lengths by winner, Rock On Ruby. However the five year old is well in at the weights and is from a stable that has been extremely consistent lately.

The one preferred for each way purposes is the Dr Richard Newland entry, Act Of Kalanisi, last seen running into third place in the Grade 2 Elite Hurdle at Wincanton just over a month ago. Dr Newland as we all know has a great knack of getting his horses in the picture in big handicap races. There was no better example of this than last weekend when he landed a big handicap chase at Cheltenham with Night Alliance. Act Of Kalanisi won a very nice Class 2 handicap last February at Ascot and looks like he has been trained to win this in similar fashion on Saturday. With odds of 25/1 he has to be a decent each prospect.

Although having gone up 8lbs in the handicap, the Donald McCain trained Desert Cry has to be respected. He incurred the penalty due to his win at Haydock last month but McCain did not think that he would win that race and therefore believes that he will improve for the run. It is dangerous these days to omit any McCain horse from the thinking, particularly in races such as this and with odds of 14/1 he is quite a temptation to back!

The favourite for the race is the Nicky Henderson trained, Grandouet, still only a four year old but who has already proved his class. He looked a promising type last season when hosing up in two Juvenile Hurdle races before taking on the Paul Nicholls trained Zarkandar in the Triumph Hurdle at the 2011 Cheltenham Festival. However, he was beaten on that occasion but looked to have the beating of him at Aintree three weeks later in the Grade 1 4YO Anniversary Hurdle but was brought down at the last when looking the likely winner.

He made amends for that disappointment when next out in May when he absolutely thrashed the opposition in the 4YO Champion Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival. The first of his two races this season saw him fall at the last when looking the certain winner in the Grade 2 Elite Hurdle at Wincanton in early November but was an emphatic winner last time in the Betfair Hurdle at Haydock Park, winning that race by 8 lengths from the very useful Marsh Warbler, who opposes again in this.

Grandouet is currently the 3/1 favourite to win Saturday’s and whilst he sets the standard, there is no doubt that he will be tested to the full by at least two other rivals. The first of those is the Donald McCain trained Overturn who has swept all before him so far this season. A big money winner on both the flat and over the sticks, the seven year old Overturn looks better than ever this season winning three from three including the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle a fortnight ago when he had 2010 Champion Hurdle winner, Binocular over four lengths adrift.

The other big name in the field for Saturday’s race is the Phillip Hobbs trained, Menorah. It would appear that Hobbs has put the intended chasing career for Menorah on hold for the time being, believing that he can still win in top grade company over the smaller obstacles. In fact Menorah won this race 12 months ago which encouraged Bookmakers at the time to make him favourite to win the Champion Hurdle. The six year old in fact was one of four being heavily backed to be the Champion Hurdler last season but he was not quite up to the standard and had to be content with a disappointing fifth place behind winner Hurricane Fly. Hobbs reports him in great form at home and believes that Menorah is still capable of “big things” in top company.

Brampour who also ran in last season’s Triumph Hurdle but could only finish in 9^th place has been pleasing trainer Paul Nicholls at Ditcheat this season. The champion trainer has said that the four year old has made great progress over the summer and his two wins so far this season is testament to that. The second of those wins came in the Grade 3 Greatwood Hurdle at Newbury last month where he finished 2½ lengths clear of the second Olofi in a big field of 23 runners. Brampour will be hoping to complete the same Greatwood/International Hurdle double as Menorah had done 12 months ago and which Detroit City, also trained by Hobbs had done in 2006 but it is Grandouet that has shown more than any of these rivals and is the one to beat in this.

Now a horse racing betting news celebrity following his Cheltenham win, Sizing Europe  was a fortunate winner over two-and-a-half miles on his seasonal reappearance at Gowran Park in October, Sizing Europe then went on to make the very useful Quito De La Roque pull out all the stops over three miles in the Grade 1 JNwine.com Chase at Down Royal last month, eventually failing by just a length-and-a-quarter to deny the current Cheltenham Gold Cup ante-post joint- third favourite.

Having seriously considered having a crack at Long Run and Kauto Star in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, trainer Henry de Bromhead eventually decided that with his horse still showing tremendous pace there was nothing to be lost in going back to two-miles, and his decision proved fully vindicated as the strapping nine-year-old proved far too go for the tremendously promising five-year-old Kauto Stone, winning the ‘Tingle Creek’ by an easy eight-lengths, the pair coming clear of Cornas in third.

De Bromhead has now confirmed that he intends to give the son of Pistolet Bleu just one more run this term prior to his attempt to retain his Cheltenham crown, and that will be at Punchestown in February when he intends to bid for the Grade 1 Tied Cottage Chase. Now a best price of just 3/1 in the horse racing betting  to win the Champion Chase, Sizing Europe will surely be many Irish punters’ banker selection of the fixture with the division looking a little short of depth only three months before the big race itself.

One of his runners is Tataniano, winner of the Grade One Maghull Novices Chase at Aintree last season. He has already been in the winner’s enclosure this term after bolting up in a valuable Handicap Chase at Chepstow in October after making all. Significantly perhaps he will have stable jockey, Ruby Walsh on board, who has chosen him over the other Ditcheat entry, Kauto Stone, half brother to brilliant stable star, Kauto Star.

French import Kauto Stone only joined Nicholls at the end of last season and repaid him with a magnificent winning debut success in the Grade 2 Ladbrokes.com Chase over 2½ miles at Down Royal a month ago. The five year old won that race with plenty in hand and had the well backed favourite, Blazing Tempo, the 2011 Galway Plate winner who was receiving 8lbs, over 14 lengths back in third place. He will have Sam Thomas on board on Saturday, but as yet he has failed to win the confidence of the punters, probably due to him trying a fast two mile trip hence his odds of 13/2, whereas, Tataniano is currently second favourite at 7/2.

The 7/4 antepost favourite to win this race on Saturday is Queen Mother Champion Chase winner, Sizing Europe. The nine year old should be absolutely spot on after his second place behind Quito De La Roque in the Grade One JN Wine Chase over three miles last month at Down Royal. The drop back in trip will definitely be in his favour think most pundits.

Trainer, Henry De Bromhead is still uncertain whether to keep Sizing Europe to the shorter distances and a tilt at a second Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival as the season’s main target. However, there is an option for the King George VI Chase over three miles at Kempton on Boxing Day and he also has an entry for the Grade One John Durkan Memorial Chase over 2½ miles at Punchestown in a fortnights time and his form over this two mile trip marks him out as clearly the horse to beat in this.

Also in the reckoning is the Phillip Hobbs trained Wishfull Thinking, last seen weakening when running well for a long time in the Grade 3 Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham last month. The drop back in trip should suit the speedy 8 year old, but whether he will be just a little short of class to get the better of Sizing Europe remains to be seen. Like Kauto Stone, he too has had Blazing Tempo behind, in fact he was in receipt of 21lbs from the Willie Mullins trained seven year old, but was still over four lengths clear when winning the very valuable Mick the Tent Memorial Novice Handicap Chase at the Punchestown Festival in May. Wishfull Thinking will undoubtedly come on for the run in the ‘Paddy Power’ and should be a major challenger in Saturday’s race.

The only other entry that has attracted antepost money is the Nick Williams trained, Gauvain, who warmed up for this run with a 16 length victory in the Shloer Chase over two miles at Cheltenham three weeks ago. He ran in this race last year in fact but was no match for the winner, Master Minded, finishing over 21 lengths behind. He has been tried at Grade One level several times, but without success and his eighth place in the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival back in March, is form that gives him little chance in this.

Tingle Creek Tip

Sizing Europe

The six year old who defied most expectations last season by winning two of the sport’s most prestigious prizes has of course tasted defeat already this term, going down by eight lengths to Kauto Star in the Betfair Chase. Long Run must bounce back from that performance when he meets Kauto Star again in the King George at Kempton Park on Boxing Day but that is likely be a completely different race. Kauto Star of course is a four time winner of the King George and his trainer, Paul Nicholls, will be looking to break the record he shares with Desert Orchid by claiming a fifth win in the race. It is also anticipated that the two will also meet, probably for a final time in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March.

There will no doubt be plenty of other chasers who will come to prominence as the season moves forward, however, there are a number of other key races at the Cheltenham Festival and one that is capturing plenty of attention is the RSA Chase.

This race is run over 2m5f and is aimed at producing the best staying novice chaser and is usually contested by horses who have earned big reputations over the smaller obstacles and who are now in their first season as Chasers.

The race this season is looking like a particularly high class affair, due mainly to the many top quality hurdlers from last season who are now chasing and who making a very good job of the transition.

The antepost favourite to win the RSA Chase is the David Pipe trained, Grands Crus, who was a very impressive 10 length winner of his first attempt over fences a fortnight ago at Cheltenham which was run over the RSA course and distance. He followed that up this week by winning the Grade 2 GPG Novices Chase over 3 miles at Newbury where although he had to work hard for the victory, the win was not the most convincing finishing only two lengths clear of the Paul Nicholls trained Sonofvic. Nonetheless a win and a clear round was more than enough to make his handlers happy and it also encouraged most Bookmakers to trim his odds from 4/1 to 3/1 for the RSA. Although there has even been some bold claims that Grands Crus may head straight to the Gold Cup at the 2012 Cheltenham Festival! However, that would be a surprise with the feature event of the Festival a more realistic target in 2013.

The horse most likely to challenge Grands Crus for favouritism in the RSA Chase is Bobs Worth, trained by Nicky Henderson, was the winner of the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle at the 2011 Cheltenham Festival, which completed an unbeaten record of four wins over hurdles.  A six year old with all the quality in the world, Bobs Worth, has the look of a future Gold Cup contender, particularly if he takes to fences as well as he did with hurdles. His debut run at Newbury last weekend result in victory but wasn’t as emphatic as many would have envisaged, finishing just a short head in front of Cue Card, himself making the transition to bigger obstacles. Much will depend on how he improves for that first experience but as it stands Grands Crus is firmly the one who has looked most impressive thus far.

Donald McCain has been extremely pleased with his Peddlers Cross, who was the runner up to the great Hurricane Fly in the Champion Hurdle back in March. He has had two runs over fences, both at Bangor-On-Dee, which he won easily. However, Peddlers Cross is most likely to head to the two mile Arkle Chase at the Festival for which he is the 5/1 antepost favourite but is still in the betting for the RSA Chase.

The biggest challenger from Ireland for RSA Chase honours is the Mouse Morris trained First Lieutenant, winner at last season’s Festival in the Grade 1 Neptune Investment Management Hurdle. He has already notched up two wins over the bigger obstacles, taking two Grade 3 Novices Chases, latterly at Cork earlier this month and also on his chasing debut at Tipperary in October. He was beaten into second place in between those races in an EBF Novices Chase when he finished a nose down in second place behind Di Valera. However, in all three races he jumped superbly well and he already looks a huge danger to any rival who lines up against him at Cheltenham.

On the back of his easy victory over Champion Court bookmakers understandably ran for cover and slashed the odds about the David Pipe-trained grey to best racing odds of 4/1 favourite to win the three-mile RSA Chase (the ‘novices Gold Cup’) at the Cheltenham Festival in March, the Dom Alco gelding having proved on a number of occasions last term that he was the only horse in the country with the class and ability to make a race of it with the outstanding Big Buck’s at that trip over timbers, finishing second to the champion staying hurdler at both the Cheltenham and Aintree festivals.

After destroying his rivals over two-miles-five-furlongs on his chasing bow, Grand Crus’ jockey, Tom Scudamore, was not slow to mention that in his opinion the horse would not be found wanting over the minimum trip of two miles, hinting that the option of going down the Arkle Chase route shouldn’t be completely ruled out. Although he raced just a couple of times over the minimum trip over hurdles, it’s worth noting that Grand Crus gave 16lbs and ran the subsequently 150-rated Cheltenham Festival and Scottish Champion Hurdle winner Sanctuaire to just four-lengths in a Taunton novice hurdle in February 2010, a run that proves he has the speed to mix it at a high level over the bare minimum trip.

It’s well known that to win the Arkle you need a horse that can see out up to two-and-a-half miles (especially if the ground is testing), so those who bet on racing should bear this in mind and possibly hedge their bets in case Pipe decides to heed Scudamore’s words and have a change of direction with this potentially top-class chaser.

It is run at Haydock Park in November over a distance of three miles, with eighteen fences and has usually been a good race for past and present Gold Cup champions. Indeed the legendary Kauto Star has won it three times whilst the 2010 Gold Cup winner Imperial Commander went on to take the race the following season.

Somewhat ironically, the best ever finish to the race was in 2009 when Kauto Star hung on grimly from Imperial Commander to win the race by the shortest possible margin. It remains a finish where there are still plenty of punters believing that Imperial commander got up that day although, Ruby Walsh, jockey of Kauto Star that day maintains that they just held on.

Originally the Betfair Chase was introduced by Betfair to serve as the first leg of a bonus scheme known as the “Betfair Million”. The Betting Exchange offered a £1m bonus for the winner of the race to go on and win both the King George Vl Chase at Kempton Park, followed by the Gold Cup at Cheltenham in the same season. Kauto Star is the only horse to have achieved the feat, when he won all three in 2006/7.

That format and any other bonus format have since been dropped and the race is now simply a top quality chase that attracts the best chasers around and offers a purse well in excess of £200,000. It is officially registered as the Lancashire Chase

The first winner of the race was the Robert Alner trained Kingscliff but he failed in his subsequent bids at winning the King George Chase and Gold Cup and in fact, never won another race of any substance for the remaining years of his career.

The only other horse to win the race was the Peter Bowen trained, rank outsider Snoopy Loopy who won in 2008 in the race where Kauto Star famously unseated jockey, Sam Thomas in spectacular style at the last fence when coming to challenge. Snoopy Loopy never won another race but he did run with great credit in the subsequent Hennessey Gold Cup, just a week after his Betfair Chase victory, where he finished in third place behind Madison Du Berlais.

The seventh renewal of the race takes place on 19^th November, where 2011 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Long Run is almost certain to go off as the favourite. Paul Nicholls who trains Kauto Star has confirmed that the race will be on the agenda for his runner in what is his final season and that he might also run, Denman, winner of the 2008 Gold Cup and who has finished second in each of the last three renewals.

Other likely starters will be last year’s Hennessey Gold winner, Diamond Harry, the very consistent Wishful Thinking from the Phillip Hobbs yard and Time For Rupert, the highly regarded seven year old from the Paul Webber stable. Pandorama from the Noel Meade stable could be the major raider from across the Irish Sea.