October 31 - Tomorrow (Saturday November 1st) the connections of galloper Kauto Star will be hoping that the eight-year-old thoroughbred 'has the luck of the Irish' as he prepares to do battle in the exciting Jnwine.com Champion Chase at Down Royal Racecourse in Northern Ireland.

Making his seasonal debut in the National Hunt race, Kauto Star has reportedly been jumping very well of late and his enthusiastic owner Clive Smith described him as 'being full of beans.' Smith also confirmed that Kauto Star's trainer Paul Nicholls too is expecting great things from the horse.

Said Smith, 'We are very pleased with Kauto Star's form and are confident that he will run well in the Jnwine.com Champion Chase. While our long-term objective is to prepare him for the Gold Cup at Cheltenham in March next year, we are also keen to enter him in the prestigious Betfair Chase.

'He has won the Betfair Chase twice and his big early-season target is the King George. However, in horse racing it's important to tackle one race at a time,' he said. The Betfair Chase is a 3 mile Gr 1 National Hunt race run in November at Haydock Park Racecourse in Merseyside, England.

In the Jnwine.com Champion Chase Kauto Star will have to contend with some stiff competition, including the Nick Mitchell-trained The Listener, who is being touted as Kauto's biggest threat. However, Mitchell - who only took over the training of The Listener in July - is cautiously optimistic.

'We arrived on Wednesday and when I rode him out on the course yesterday morning I found the ground to be very soft. Kauto Star arrived at Down Royal yesterday and despite The Listener being in good form, I don't think it would be a disgrace if we ended up playing second fiddle to him.'

Both Kauto Star and The Listener will also have the Jessica Harrington-trained Knight Legend to deal with. Said the well-respected Kildare (Ireland) based trainer, 'Knight Legend ran extremely well on his reappearance and we are now obviously stepping him back up to handle three miles.'

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2012/04/02 06:43:41 AM