Racing: Tingle of surprise as Star put in for speed test

Paul Nicholls already recognises Alan King as a man who may one day supplant him as champion trainer, but he is clearly not inclined to hasten the process. For while King has the favourite for the William Hill Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown on Saturday, in Voy Por Ustedes, Nicholls accounted for five of the other 13 entries - and has taken everyone aback by including Kauto Star among them.

Though he won this race last year, proving equal to a breathless test of jumping at full pelt, this season Kauto Star has discovered an unsuspected seam of stamina. A swaggering performance over three miles at Haydock 10 days ago prompted his trainer to reproach himself for having treated a Gold Cup horse as a two-miler, and caused the bookmakers to make him hot favourite for the Stan James King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day.

The sponsors were suitably baffled to find Kauto Star among the Tingle Creek entries, and decided to leave him out of a list headed by Voy Por Ustedes on 9-4, but punters cannot afford to leave him out of their own calculations. For Nicholls himself is certainly leaving the door ajar.

As a rule, and in contrast to his predecessor as champion, Martin Pipe, there is refreshing clarity to Nicholls's planning. But perhaps this time he may feel his first debt is to the horse's own audacity. After all, few others have remotely approached Desert Orchid, who elastically won the 1988 Tingle Creek despite his aptitude for the demands of the King George.

"He's only a tentative entry," Nicholls said. "I need to talk to Clive Smith [the owner] and Ruby Walsh, look at the entries and the ground. I'm not going to put us under any pressure and say we're running or we're not. We'll see how the week unfolds.

"The horse has had a canter every day this week and last. He doesn't need a lot of work, just needs ticking over. He was very fresh this morning, and you don't want to keep dropping horses off. He looks bright and well, and hasn't had a hard race this season. It's not like it was a slog the other day."

So far as they are relevant, opposition and conditions will hardly discourage Nicholls. He already seems guaranteed the testing ground he has specified as essential to any return to two miles. And while Voy Por Ustedes mastered a vintage Arkle field at Cheltenham, he would sooner not bump into Kauto Star on his first run since the spring.

Nicholls has, moreover, expressed a desire to campaign Kauto Star more aggressively than in the past. Equally, it seems safe to say that he would only run him on Saturday if certain that he would not erode the peak the horse must maintain at Kempton. After all, success there would keep him eligible for the £1m bonus offered by Betfair to the winner of the Haydock race. He would still have to go on and win the Totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup, of course, and an extra race in winter ground could yet loosen the fanbelt come March.

That is very much the spirit in which King is approaching his own horse. "Bear in mind this will only be a start," he said. "The one we want to win is the Queen Mother Champion Chase in March. But that's the beauty of a good horse. You can know exactly where you are going with them."

Conceivably, that will strike Nicholls as a rather ironic observation. All being well, King envisages giving Voy Por Ustedes three races before the Festival. "They only need a break if you blitz them," King said. "And if all goes to plan, he won't be over-raced. It was always the intention to start at Sandown, and I could not be happier with the way he has been working. He's strengthened up, too, which was on the cards as a five-year-old."

Voy Por Ustedes has an energetic demeanour but King is not concerned that he might prove too fresh on Saturday. "He's pretty buzzy at the minute," King admitted. "But we can always make the running if need be, and in his work I must say he is probably going even better than last year."

Either way, King does not anticipate a relaxing afternoon. Half an hour earlier on the card, he will watch another Festival winner hurl himself over those dizzy fences in the back straight in the Sodexho Prestige Henry VIII Novices' Chase.

My Way De Solzen made a spectacular start over fences at Lingfield last week and, though he excelled over three miles over hurdles, King is eager to confine him to two miles in his novice season. This sort of thing is clearly catching.

Chris McGrath

Nap: Nenuphar Collonges (Hereford 3.10)

NB: Birkside (Lingfield 2.20)