LONDON – Two-time Cheltenham Gold Cup champion Kauto Star’s bid for a record fifth win in the King George VI steeplechase will have to wait till January 15 after Kempton Park racecourse authorities were forced to postpone the race for a second time after an inspection on Sunday.
The race had been set for its traditional Boxing Day running until it was postponed on Friday because of frozen ground with the management team hoping it could be run on Monday.
Clerk of the course Barney Clifford said of the decision to abandon plans to stage the race on Monday: “We’ve done everything we can but the forecast has gone against us.”
The further postponement will come as a blow to champion jockey Tony McCoy, the recently-crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year, who broke his Grand National duck this year on Don’t Push It.
The 36-year-old Ulsterman was due to ride Kauto Star for the first time as injury to both Paul Nicholls’s stable jockey Ruby Walsh and then second choice Noel Fehily had won him the mount.
King George postponed till mid-January
