King Kicking, the brilliant winner of the 2005 Cheltenham Gold Cup, made his long-awaited comeback at Gowran Park on Thursday (January 24th) after 759 days on the sidelines with tendon trouble, and finished a narrow second to 1/4 favourite Nickname.
There may only have been three runners in the Grade Two event over two miles and a furlong, but it was select trio made up of Kicking King, who has amassed six wins at the highest level, the 2006 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Newmill and the multiple-Graded winner Nickname.
And the three runners certainly proved that you don’t need a big field to create an exciting finish as less than three lengths separated them at the line.
Not surprisingly, the post race debate focused on the return of Kicking King, who appeared to run a blinder and was surely only beaten by a lack of race fitness. He also clouted the second last, which cost him lengths of momentum at a crucial time.
However, in the cold light of day you can probably look at his performance two ways.
On the plus side, Kicking King has narrowly been beaten by one of the best two mile chasers around, on ground that was probably softer than he would have liked and over a vastly inadequate trip. In addition, had he jumped a bit better, he would surely have won and taken two notable scalps in the process. Had it been Denman who was beaten into second by Newmill and Nickname, we would have been drooling over the performance.
However, being negative for a moment, it is easy to argue that neither Newmill nor Nickname is anywhere near their best at the moment. Newmill hasn’t come close to repeating the level of form he showed when winning the Queen Mother, whilst Nickname was being pushed along here from a long way out and seems to be feeling the effects of a hard season last year when he ran in so many big races on very soft ground. He didn’t jump well here either.
As for Kicking King’s fitness, trainers seem much more able these days to get horses fit at home and whilst he is bound to improve for the run, that is likely to be because his trainer has left something to work on between now and Cheltenham, just as Paul Nicholls will have done with Kauto Star and Denman.
It was great to see Kicking King return to the track, and connections must have been thrilled with his performance. However, the bottom line is that even if he is back to his very best (and that may be a big if) he will probably still need to improve a few pounds to beat Kauto Star.
Nevertheless bookmakers reacted to the performance by slicing his odds for the Gold Cup from 40/1 to around 14/1. The bookmaker now offering the biggest odds are VCbet who offer 16/1.
One thing is for sure, his presence in the Gold Cup field on 14th March would add further luster to a contest that already looks like being one of the most exciting and eagerly anticipated races run for many, many years.
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