Top 5 Kauto Star Races

King - The legendary Kauto Star will never be forgotten.

This post was originally published in 2012, but given the devastating news that broke this morning that Kauto Star had been put down, I wanted to celebrate the incredible career he enjoyed until his retirement two and a half years ago.

It still hasn't properly sunk in that he's gone and it probably won't for some time. This horse is the reason I'm a horse racing fan - his career taking off coinciding almost perfectly with my interest in the sport sparking, and he brought so much joy to me and his legions of fans.

The true embodiment of the term 'the people's horse', no other equine star could put you through such a range of emotions as King Kauto. He was the most precociously talented jumps horse I've had the pleasure of seeing and he enjoyed a career at the top of the game that may never be emulated again.

Whether he was the greatest of all time is an argument that realistically you can never truly settle, but he is certainly the greatest of my lifetime and his accomplishments and contribution to horse racing and sport in general will live long in the memory and never be forgotten.

In tribute to the life of the brilliant Kauto Star - once again his top five race course performances... 

The Derby 2015 Preview

Jack the Lad - Jack Hobbs looks the value alternative to the favourite in the Derby.

Unlike the Oaks, the Derby has a strong favourite taking a big chunk out of the market meaning there are some bigger prices about some of the leading contenders as things stand.

As impressed as I was with Golden Horn’s Dante win, at a general 7/4 and given his owner-breeder’s fears over his stamina you simply have to try and take him on and be prepared to look foolish in doing so if his undoubted class is enough to get him home in front or if he in fact does stay and all this speculation is proved unfounded.

That said, it’s easier said than done to find an alternative with question marks hanging over so many of the field for one reason or another.

Prior to the Chester Vase I had a daft each-way bet on Hans Holbein at a ridiculous price which given how many of the other Coolmore battalion have failed to make it to the race or even impress on their way to it in the case of some of the survivors no longer seems that daft.

The Oaks 2015 Preview

Crystal Ballin' - Crystal Zvezda looks a major player in the Oaks.

It took a while to get there, but with the middle two classics of the season just days away now the markets for this year’s Derby and Oaks have finally taken shape.

The fancy prices may have disappeared now but with so much uncertainty over so many contenders in both races over the last few months playing the waiting game with Epsom 2015 has probably been a smart move.

With a short-priced favourite in the Derby there definitely looks to be some value lurking and although the Oaks looks more open, at least as far as the betting goes, I’m pretty keen on the chances of one of the main challengers.

The filly in question is Sir Michael Stoute’s Crystal Zvezda, an impressive winner of a Listed race at Newbury last month, the same race last year’s Oaks third Volume won en route to Epsom.