Racing: The right decision - Kauto Star retires

TRIBUTES have continued to be paid to record-breaking steeplechaser Kauto Star (pictured) after yesterday's announcement that the much-fancied horse had been retired from racing. 

Kauto, trained by Somerset’s champion trainer Paul Nicholls at Ditcheat only a short distance from Wincanton Racecourse, will go down in history as one of the sport’s greatest having won the King George VI Chase for a fifth time on Boxing Day last year and is the only horse to have regained the coveted Cheltenham Gold Cup having lost it.

Kauto, owned by Clive Smith, won the Cheltenham Gold in 2007 and 2009, the King George VI Chase in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011, and the Befair Chase in 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2011.

The popular 12-year-old was pulled up at Cheltenham when going for a third victory in March and owner Smith felt it was the right thing to do to retire him from racing.  

Smith, speaking to the BBC yesterday, said: "He's had a magnificent career and I'm mighty proud of him.

"We've decided to retire him as of today. I'd always thought he had done enough. It's been the journey of a lifetime. He's a wonderful, wonderful horse and a good friend of mine."

Nicholls (pictured at WIncanton Racecourse last month), who described Kauto as ‘one of the greatest’, added: ‘’Clive and I both knew it was the right thing to do – it was a unanimous decision.’’  

It is expected that Kauto will be paraded at KemptonPark on Boxing Day – the venue where he famously won five King George VI Chases.

Jockey Ruby Walsh, who rode Kauto on many of his triumphs, said he had ‘loved every minute’ of riding him.

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