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Anyway, far as I'm concerned the best article about this whole sorry affair has been in the guardian. I can't post the link cos I'm on my phone, but its the best balanced thing I've seen about it.
This is the article to which Trudi refers and is written by Greg Wood of The Guardian
he news of Kauto Star's abrupt departure from the Paul Nicholls stable for a new career in dressage with Laura Collett was the perfect raw material for a Twitterstorm. It broke at a time when people were logging on in their lunch break, it had a 12-year-old celebrity caught up in a tug-of-love drama, and best of all, it was purely and simply a matter of opinion.
We can't ask Kauto Star where he wants to spend his retirement from racing, which could well be longer than his actual racing career, and so 140-character judgments could be swiftly formed and then imposed on the unwitting ex-racehorse on his behalf. His move into dressage, and away from the Nicholls stable, is either a Good Thing or a Bad Thing, according to your point of view, but unless Kauto Star himself decides to bust out of the Collett operation and head for "home", there is unlikely to be any objective way to tell whether he is enjoying the change of scenery and discipline, or missing his old box back in Somerset.
Kauto Star's main priorities in life are food, shelter and warmth, and Collett's highly professional operation, which is advised by the noted horse guru Yogi Breisner, is more than able to provide all three. Once his basic welfare is assured, Kauto Star also needs to have his brain exercised, and learning a new discipline will take care of that.
Kauto Star does not understand that the business, and personal, relationship between Nicholls and Clive Smith, the gelding's owner, have broken down. He does not understand that horse racing is a hugely popular spectator sport that is enjoyed by millions of people and keeps tens of thousands in employment. He does not understand that he won two Gold Cups and five King Georges. He does not understand that he is a horse.
This is essentially a human dispute, played out through the medium of a 12-year-old ex-steeplechaser. It also says something about the nature of the relationship between a racehorse owner and its trainer, which can appear to be the happiest of marriages when the horse in question is winning, but is often less harmonious behind closed doors.
It is trainers and their staff who do the hard work of turning a raw young horse into an outstanding champion like Kauto Star. The owner "just" pays the bills. But without that huge, ongoing financial commitment – Kauto Star cost more than £300,000, and Nicholls's weekly fee can't be much below £400 – the horse would not be there at all.
Both sides of the equation are essential, but that does not mean that it is a relationship of equals. Smith is Kauto Star's owner, pure and simple. As long as his horse's basic welfare is assured, he can stable him where he pleases, and Collett's yard in Wiltshire is much closer to his Surrey home than the Nicholls stable in Ditcheat.
The problem is that while the financial input is entirely Smith's, the emotional investment by Nicholls and his many staff, all of whom hoped to see Kauto Star spend his retirement in the yard, is immense. Smith will have been well aware of this, but presumably weighed the inevitable distress at Ditcheat against his own pleasure in having his horse just down the road, and came down in favour of himself. People are often like that. And if there was also an element of rubbing Nicholls's nose in it a little, and reminding him who is the boss, well, people are often like that, too.
Perhaps a lesson that we could all take from this is that if a horse moving from one stable to another can be a cause of such anger, we may be guilty of investing too much emotion ourselves. Kauto Star has, at least, come through his racing career unscathed, and has not been asked to continue in a risky business once his chance of winning at the highest level was gone. His sprawling fall four out in the 2010 Gold Cup with his head bent under his body could easily have broken his neck. How much worse would that have been than a career-change into dressage?
Perhaps the strangest reaction to the news, in fact, was the apparent belief among some racing fans that performing to music is somehow an ignominious way for a tough steeplechaser to end his career. One picture that did the rounds on Twitter was a horse in a tutu. It seems that for some, it is a little like Tony McCoy signing up for Dancing On Ice.
As it happens, McCoy's strength and balance might well make him a serious competitor on the ice rink, although the outfits and sequins might take some getting used to. But leaving that aside, what could possibly be demeaning about a horse doing something horsey? Dancing may not come entirely naturally, but then, neither does jumping steeplechase fences. If it did, they would not need to be schooled.
It could be much worse. Consider Corrida, who won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1936 and 1937. In June 1944, she was spending a happy retirement at the Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard stud, not far from a beach in Normandy. She disappeared from her paddock shortly after D-Day. It is believed that she was eaten by retreating German soldiers.
