Kauto Star canes the bookies

By Dave Thompson

CHELTENHAM (Reuters) - Kauto Star, a hot favourite to land the Cheltenham Gold Cup, came to the rescue of backers on the Festival's final day.

They had endured a miserable time with the falls of Well Chief in the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Wednesday and Black Jack Ketchum in Thursday's World Hurdle after the poor showing of Detroit City in Tuesday's Champion Hurdle.

But things finally brightened up for bruised punters on Friday when 11-times champion Tony McCoy landed a huge gamble on Wichita Lineman in the novice hurdle. He was the 11-8 favourite and finally got McCoy off the mark after a blank three days.

Then in the Gold Cup gamblers backed Kauto Star down to 5-4 favourite despite fears there might be a repeat of his last two races where the horse hit the final fence hard and did well to clinch victory.

On Friday, Kauto Star brushed though the top of the last fence but lost no momentum, galloping to his sixth success of the season to the delight of his thousands of backers.

Winning trainer Paul Nicholls said: "I'm thrilled. I have never in my time in racing heard so much rubbish talked about him. He has won six on the trot...and there's all these doubters".