KAUTO Star confirmed his position as ante-post favourite for the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup with a fluent victory in the Commercial First Ascot Chase.

Paul Nicholls’s ace put up an impressive performance in his last race before he attempts back-to-back victories in the Gold Cup.

Jumping into the lead three out, Kauto Star (4-11) turned on the power for Ruby Walsh to beat Monet’s Garden by eight lengths with Racing Demon a further neck adrift in third.

Fair Along set a strong gallop from the outset with Walsh content to settle the hot favourite in joint third place with Racing Demon.

However, the pacemaker came back to the field by the fourth last at which point Walsh made his move on Kauto Star.

Once he hit the front, the rest of the field were always fighting a losing battle as Kauto Star turned on the style.

Nicholls said: “I wanted him ridden positively. There’s no point dropping him out the door and riding him negative.

“Ride him positive - he stays and jumps better. I said to Ruby this morning that I wanted him third or fourth and just track through. That’s the way to ride him and he jumped great.

“I think he’s as well as he’s ever been. He looks great we’ve left plenty to work on again but he was probably a lot fitter than Denman was as he’s that type of horse. We just have a month now to keep him spot on.

“I’m lucky that I’ve got a great team at home. We’ve worked hard to train both horses. They will be trained to turn up at Cheltenham on Gold Cup day at their very best.

“I’ve got a certain amount of loyalty to Kauto Star as he is the reigning champion. You can see from today’s performance he’ll be very hard to beat,” the champion trainer told BBC Sport

Monet’s Garden’s trainer Nicky Richards added: “He ran a good race. We’ll have to see what happens nearer the day but I think it’s very likely he’ll go to Aintree now.”
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