Kauto Star is coming back to the field

IS the Star fading or was Kauto's demise in Saturday's Betfair Chase at Haydock merely a blip?

Opinion on the great horse will be divided. Many will be more than happy to give him another chance in the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day, while others will see the Kempton showpiece as a great opportunity to take him on with the likes of Voy Por Ustedes and Tidal Bay.

Kauto Star has drifted to 6-4 for the King George following his last-fence fall at Haydock and that could be a decent price for a horse who has twice produced devastating displays over the course and distance.

But the evidence of three of his last four runs is quite damning. He was beaten fully a mile from home in the Cheltenham Gold Cup won by Denman and exposed by a horse - Our Vic - with a soft centre at Aintree.

A canter round in an egg and spoon race in Ireland last time told us nothing more than the horse's well-being, but Saturday's stiffer contest clearly showed that Kauto Star is vulnerable as he gets that little bit older.

If he were to drift to 2-1 for Kempton, I would be interested, but I think his chances of winning the Gold Cup again are minimal and current odds of 5-1 are wildly optimistic.

Binocular, on the other hand, enhanced his long-term Cheltenham Festival prospects with a fluent success in the Betfair Hurdle and while a dismissal of inferior opponents is nothing to get excited about, one could not be anything but impressed by his slick jumping and high cruising speed.

Whether he deserved to be cut to 4-1 for the Champion Hurdle I am not sure, but he was more impressive on Saturday than main market rival Crack Away Jack, whose jumping at Ascot let him down at a vital stage and led to his defeat at the hands of the admirable mare, Chomba Womba.

That said, Crack Away Jack travelled like much the best horse for most of the Ascot Hurdle and it could be that he has learned a great deal from his first effort in this much higher grade.

As for Chomba Womba, she merely enhanced the fire power of trainer Nicky Henderson who, apart from this mare and Binocular, also boasts live Champion Hurdle contenders in Punjabi and Aigle D'Or.

AMID all the furore surrounding Kauto Star's fall at Haydock, the success of 33-1 winner Snoopy Loopy tended to be overlooked.

But Peter Bowen's improving chaser could do no more than win and the trainer is pondering a crack at Saturday's Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury before the handicapper can react to his latest success.

Said Bowen: "We will have to think about it as he will be in off his old rating and he's in such good form."

Best price for Snoopy Loopy is 20-1 with Skybet (Totesport go a lowest of 10-1), but while he is reasonably well treated at Newbury, he did have a desperately hard race at Haydock and it would speak volumes for the horse's constitution were he to come out again and land such a competitive handicap as the Hennessy.

FRONTRUNNERS dominated the two big races over the Grand National fences in the Aintree mud yesterday, Endless Power landing the Grand Sefton Chase and Black Apalachi bolting home in the Becher Chase.

The former gave the best exhibition of fluent fencing over the National fences I have seen for years, while Black Apalachi turned the Becher into a procession, jumping accurately and staying on much too strongly for his toiling rivals.

Endless Power is likely to return to Aintree for the Topham Chase in April, while a crack at the National is firmly on Black Apalachi's agenda, Ladbrokes quoting him at 33-1 to land the big one.