How short Flattie memories seem to be now that you are communally drooling over Sea The Stars.
Kauto Star is rising 10yo, and has 19 chase starts outside of novice company in 4 seasons racing. That includes his 06/07 season where he won six on the bounce, including a handicap.
In fact, last year was the first season over fences he hasn't contested a handicap chase - most likely because connections felt they had to campaign the horse differently after his troubles at the end of the 07/08 season. Connections were, of course, largely vindicated following a truncated campaign last season which led to three G1 victories. Kauto Star was aggressively campaigned during three full seasons, but needs something different now that he is entering the twighlight of his career. This horse has not been campaigned in the same way as Best mate was - far from it - and any suggestion that he has, is utterly erroneous. The only race he hasn't run in so far, which I would love to see, is the Racing Post Chase.
The Jim Nicholson is a G1 event, and Kauto Star will be readied to win it - not plod around in the hope of picking-up condition for the King George. The race is "proper" enough for me, and even if it only attracts six runners, at least all of them will be trying to win it, and not just acting as pace-makers for the likes of Notre Pere or Cooldine.
As for your definition of "two proper races", it is this kind of thoughtless, throwaway rubbish that I would expect from Lesley Graham, Alice Plunkett or any of the other idiotic Channel 4 "Sacrificed on the Festival Altar" doomsayers.
Denman has had well documented health problems, and they were the only thing that prevented him from going after a second Hennessy win under-top-weight last year. Naturally, with the horse looking more-or-less nursed back to something near his best last year, it's entirely reasonable for them to adopt a cautious approach with him initially. I still think Harry wants to really test this horse in another handicap though, and hopefully he will find a suitable race for him to do so.
Master Minded suffers from scaring the opposition shitless - hardly his fault. To be honest, I hope he does run in a handicap, but failing that, I'd expect him to fit either the Chandler or Game Spirit in between Sandown and Cheltenham. With there being no race for him at Aintree, connections will likely head to Punchestown once more......so we can probably expect him to run in double the races you predict.
Gal, it would be nice to see Kauto Star and Denman run against each other prior to Cheltenham, but wouldn't you want to keep them apart if you trained them?
If it was a case of Kauto Star or Denman ducking out i.e. missing obvious races in an effort to avoid running into each other, than I would take a harsher view. But given there are adequate races in the Jumps Programme for both, I'm personally happy enough to wait until the Gold Cup for the clash - especially so considering that (given acceptable ground) it is probably the fairest race on the calendar for them to meet in.
but think you mean Celestial Halo Gal. 
