Kauto Star RIP

Absolutely gutted,
RIP Kauto, you were a true Star
Condolences to all who cared about him, regardless of the possible rights and wrongs of what happened.
 
trudij said:
I'm sure the truth will come out in the end. There is a lot being spouted in various places, I'm now up to four different things and it's mad.

At the end of the day, we've lost probably the best national hunt horse of a generation and we should be celebrating his life.
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"we" are...its you and a few others muckraking through rumours and heresay that aren't

all this..oooh send me a pm bollox is so tedious,,ffs
 
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Terrible news - what he did in 2006 was remarkable. A very sad way to go and very disappointing that Clifford Baker wasn't told earlier
 
Yep EC, that's me - purely on this thread muckraking. I'm well known for causing trouble.... ( Where's that roll eyes emoticon when I need it?) Definitely haven't said multiple times that it's very sad and a huge shame. I can't gush about him, he wasn't a favourite of mine to be able to, but I do understand why so many loved him.
I wish i could see animals just as speed numbers, but I'm not made like that - I care about the whys and wherefores of how they work, so when I see or hear something within my area of "expertise" that doesn't add up, of course I'm not surprised when it's questioned and will be curious as to the truth.

Whatever went on, the end result, as we have all said - is that he's gone. Huge star, and now we are left with his legacy and the statue at kempton.
 
As an expert Trudi, (I'm not being sarcastic) could you confirm my inexpert view that in order to sustain injuries to pelvis and neck, the horse has to have been travelling at speed and taken some kind of rotational fall, unless of course he committed suicide
 
What a shame. This horse was my all time fave, which might explain why I'm to "gush". He lit up the track in so many ways, always touched with the nail-biting nerves that he might throw in an occasional howler. Racing was lucky then that Paul Nicholls let his top horses take each other on and for the classics made as a result. He was that touch of class and courage and what a combination!! I love the fact he came back when his guts had been questioned and what a way he answered them. He could gallop, he could jump (usually!), he could fight and he was magic. He deserved so much longer in his retirement, in whatever form it would take and this really isn't fair. RIP Kauto and thanks for those memories, one in a million.

On a personal note, was very lucky and feel very grateful to see his first Tingle Creek, all his Festival runs and those 6 King George runs.

I dragged myself to Cheltenham in 2012, with a debilitating illness, simply as I believed it may be his last run and I wanted to be there to see him out. Watched the races from the pre-parade ring all day and left after his race, but am so glad I went. Have included a pic I took of him after he won the 2009 Gold Cup. What a horse. Farewell, King Kauto.

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Great pic Sue. He was a beauty.

credit to PFN for how he campaigned him. His last KG win was the stuff of fairy tale.

longevity, speed, stamina and class
 
Lol - I'm definitely no expert, but things like this do come into my job, hence the "area of expertise" comment.

I couldn't possibly comment about anything warbler, I've got mud to rake so I'm far too busy [emoji12]

(when I read the article with the vets report it did cross my mind that the injuries fitted some kind of rotational fall ( doesn't have to be at speed, horses aren't designed to do somersaults) rather than a trip/ stumble. He could be quite clumsy though if I remember rightly, so it's perfectly possible that he could have gone arse over tit in the field and the ground at the moment is very very hard.
BUT
none of us were there at the time, and whichever of the various stories is correct we will probably never know.

I do know I feel very sorry for everyone at Laura Colletts, they all lost him too and that does seem to be being forgotten in the aftermath / revisiting of the retirement saga. I've stopped reading things now, the more you look, the more people seem to have their own ideas and seem to be on some kind of witch hunt.
I don't discriminate - I dislike both Clive smith and Paul Nicholls equally, so I don't really care about their sides of things but it does mean that I look at them both with open eyes. I've changed my mind three or four times during the course of this afternoon and this evening as more has come to light/been speculated about/been invented so I've given up with it all now and am retreating back to what makes sense in my head and that it's very sad that a horse who gave so much to so many can't be allowed to just be " he's had to be put down, it's incredibly sad, he was a champion and we probably won't see his like again"

That probably doesn't make much sense at all, but I know what I mean and I'm sure anyone who bothers to read it will decide it says what they want it to say anyway!!!
 
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Love the photo Sue :) and your post is exactly what I would write ( ish!!) about one that I loved as much as you did Kauto. I like reading the "gushy" posts - I think it's lovely that we all love different horses in different ways, yet can usually appreciate them even when we don't feel the same ( hope you see what I mean!)
 
Just heartbreaking , such a beautiful horse. Have to admit I was always in the Denman camp but over the years I developed a great respect for Kauto , the way he battled in his races in later years and even I shed a tear on the 5th king George , beautiful beautiful brave horse .
 
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trudij; I know exactly what you mean about Kauto. He wasn't a horse that I adored but I came to respect him over the years and his last King George win was incredible [in my mind I can still see him soaring over that last fence; it's as if that leap will carry on forever..and perhaps it actually is]. I just feel that I need to understand more of how this could have happened to him; not because I'm being nosey [I hope] but for my own peace of mind. It's surprised me how stunned I am by his death. Dessie brought me back to racing, so I missed most of his career, but I followed Kauto right from the start and he's become part of the fabric of my life.
 
Warbler said:
As an expert Trudi, (I'm not being sarcastic) could you confirm my inexpert view that in order to sustain injuries to pelvis and neck, the horse has to have been travelling at speed and taken some kind of rotational fall, unless of course he committed suicide
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Actually, it's entirely possible for it to have happened in the field. Freakish, but not impossible.

My friend's dressage-bred youngster was having a hooley in his paddock a few months ago, skidded and turned over and got himself stuck under the bottom rail of the perimeter fence. In his thrashing about to free himself, he sustained injuries very similar to those reported of Kauto including a fracture of the C5 vertebra (it was his neck that was stuck under the fence), but fortunately in his case the swelling decreased before it got to the point of causing paralysis and he didn't develop secondary pneumonia or laminitis. He's on his way to making a recovery but may only ever be a field ornament.

Obviously I can't say definitively that this is what happened to Kauto, but just to advise it's not an impossible set of circumstances.

We had our own shitty day yesterday with having to have our dog PTS and then hearing this news was just the cherry of crap on the excrement icing of the **** cake. I loved this horse, my favourite chaser of recent times and if any horse deserved a long and healthy retirement it was Kauto.
 
I was working at Barbury Castle when Viking Flagship broke a leg when in the schooling area on his own........don't think anyone knew how it happened.
 
bloodnok said:
I know what you mean but it's maybe not the time to read too much into the sub text either, it's about the horse not the people around him to me.
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Common sense should tell everyone that PN would be contacted by the press within minutes of the release....What would he say when asked "when did you find out"?

I'm not a big fan of PN but he is entitled to be fuming. The horse was a huge part of his life and his staff's and Smith didn't have the decency to tell them the horse had a horrific accident..............PN Clive Baker and Ruby would have been there in a flash had they known and given a chance to say their farewells.

Sad state of affairs,sad man.
 
Went to the Betfair Chase on his comeback ,made hairs stand up at the back of the neck, heavily lumped on Long Run but cheered him on the home strait he was that sort of horse that demanded respect and the atmosphere in the paddock afterwards was so charged you could literally absorb the admiration for him - one of those unforgettable racing moments for mine
 
He was Clive Smiths horse and no one will be more upset than him at this moment in time, especially as he thought he'd done everything possible to give Kauto a safe retirement. I doubt if Ruby would have flown over to say goodbye.
 
When did Ruby say that exactly?

What I read was:-

Horses are horses,” he said. “You can replace a horse. It’s sad, but horses are animals, outside your back door. Humans are humans, they are inside your back door. You can replace a horse but you can’t replace a human being.”

Perhaps some Rag twisted it like they always do? nothing like a bit of sensationalism to sell papers
 
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