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http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/mar/16/kauto-star-retirement-cheltenham-gold-cup
End of an era

Kauto Star likely to be retired

Clive Smith, owner of the two-time Gold Cup winner, described himself as “90% sure” he’d raced his final competitive fixture.

KAUTO STAR MAY have failed in his bid to claim a third Gold Cup and with it a staggering 17th Grade One chase, but the wistful standing ovation he received from the Cheltenham faithful this week can nonetheless be considered a fitting coda to a spectacular career.

It’s a perspective evidently shared by Clive Smith, the horse’s owner.

Speaking with the Guardian’s Greg Wood in the wake of the that final Gold Cup withdrawal, he described himself as “90% sure” Kauto Star would be retired in the near future.

“I’ll take advice, but someone would have to work very hard to persuade me that you’ll see him out again, because I wouldn’t want to see a Best Mate situation or a Dawn Run [both Gold Cup winners who were later killed while racing], I don’t want anything like that.”

Having finished the week on something of a sentimental high, Smith believes further competition unlikely to yield a more satisfying outcome.

“He’s given me so much pleasure, he’s been a wonderful horse and a great champion. It’s sad that we probably won’t see him on a track again, but he’s in one piece and that’s the main thing.”

If Kauto Star does retire, he’ll do so having accumulated £2,375,883 in prizemoney over a period of seven years, a National Hunt record.

Read more on this story from the Guardian

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