• Paul Nicholls reports chaser on course for Festival highlight
• Second-favourite worked well in Monday schooling session
Kauto Star, the most popular steeplechaser since Desert Orchid, will make what is expected to be his final appearance in the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday after he came through what Paul Nicholls, his trainer, described as an "awesome" final schooling session at his stable on Monday morning.
Nicholls's 12-year-old, the outstanding staying chaser of the past 20 years, had been a doubtful starter in the Gold Cup since taking a heavy fall while schooling at home on 24 February. After the fall, Nicholls described him as having a "50-50" chance of lining up at Cheltenham, but he has progressed rapidly over the past week and looked fit and well in a gallop after racing at Wincanton last Friday.
There was no hint of any mishaps after Monday's schooling, however, and Kauto Star was confirmed as a Gold Cup runner shortly before 12.30pm.
"He was awesome, just as I'd thought he would be," Nicholls said, while Ruby Walsh, Kauto Star's jockey, said on Twitter that "Kauto jumped brilliant, the dream is alive again".
Kauto Star will be running in the Gold Cup for the sixth time in his outstanding career, having won the race in 2007 and 2009. He finished second to Denman, who has since retired, in 2008, was a faller in 2010 and came home in third place, behind Long Run, the favourite for this year's renewal, and Denman 12 months ago.
The opposition to Kauto Star in Friday's Gold Cup was reduced on Monday morning when David Pipe announced that Grands Crus, the season's leading staying novice chaser, will contest the RSA Chase on Wednesday. The grey, who has not raced since taking the Grade One Feltham Novice Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day, had been quoted as the third-favourite for the Gold Cup by bookmakers before the decision to divert him to the RSA, for which he is likely to start as a short-priced favourite.