Should Kauto Star be retired? The answer is a simple one. I don't know. And nor do you. Unless, of course, your name is Paul Nicholls, Clifford Baker, Ruby Walsh or Clive Smith.
The Kauto Star camp has put a lot of egg on a lot of faces this season after the extensive calls for his retirement at the end of the last campaign. In many ways that laboured Punchestown effort and his effort in the Gold Cup last week are comparable in that they both fall into the 'too bad to be true with valid excuses' category. For some reason it seems people forget very quickly that this horse stormed home to win the Betfair Chase by 8 lengths with the reigning Gold Cup winner and the best of the up and comers trailing in his wake. He then went on to win a historic 5th King George in December with a quality field well beaten. I am sure we will all agree that those are two of the finest moments in our great sport but if Nicholls et al had listened to the uninformed this time last year then none of that would have happened. And what a crying shame that would have been.
Who is to say that he couldn't return again? I am not saying he can, and I am not saying he will, but the Kauto Star team, who know him so well, should be left to make the decision. It helps not at all to have uninitiated people saying 'he should be retired' when the evidence they have to support their view is so limited. On the racecourse evidence available to us he 'should' have been retired after that lifeless display at Punchestown but Nicholls et al knew he was capable of better, they knew he was flying at home before Haydock, they knew he wasn't ready to be retired. We didn't.
He has been a great horse, he still is, and he has given many of us our finest memories. But I can only imagine the gratitude and affection that those connected with the horse feel. For some inexplicable reason people seem to think that connections wish to exploit him when the horse owes them nothing and he deserves a long and happy retirement. They are correct in that he owes nobody anything and he deserves a happy retirement, more than any other horse that has gone before, but they are as wide of the mark as it is possible to be if they seriously think that the horse's best interests are not paramount to their thinking.
I find the idea that stumps should be drawn after one explicable poor run a strange one. This is, after all, officially the highest rated chaser in training at the present moment, the winner of the Betfair Chase and the King George. He is no back number and one below par effort (with excuses aplenty) should not mask that fact. Moreover, he looks to love the game as much as ever. His antics in the paddock before his pre-Gold Cup racecourse gallop at Wincanton were testament to that, as was the way he strolled round Cheltenham as if he owned the place (and he nearly does) soaking up the applause. If Nicholls et al are happy with him and he is enjoying himself when he returns from his summer break then I see no reason why he should not continue.
The decision to retire or not is one for connections, the people that have looked after his every need for years, the people that see him everyday, the people that know him inside out. They will know when the time has come. It might be that he never races again, it might be that he turns up at Haydock Park on November 17th to strut his stuff again.
The horse owes nobody anything, but we, the racing public, owe connections plenty. They have given us this great horse, campaigned him boldly, and maintained him at the peak of his powers for a scarcely believable period. We owe them the time and space to make the correct decision on this question. Let us give it to them.
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