High hopes as shining lights Kauto and Kalahari return

Last seen when falling in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Kauto Star – still racing's brightest star – runs at Down Royal. A tilt at an unprecedented fifth successive King George Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day is still his primary target.

Meanwhile Kalahari King, Murphy's stable star, reappears at Kelso in a five-runner contest, with his performance likely to determine whether this eyecatching chaser sticks to two miles, or slightly longer trips, this season.

Either way, all races lead to Cheltenham – and the National Hunt Festival next March.

Third in last year's Queen Mother Champion Chase, Murphy hopes an uninterrupted preparation will benefit Kalahari King. He only had one race last season, winning a competitive handicap under top weight at Doncaster, before heading to Cheltenham.

With hindsight, the trainer says that was a mistake. "I was always told you should never win a handicap with top-weight before Cheltenham and it is right," says the West Witton handler.

"It takes too much out of them and they don't recover in time. Today will be tough – Noble Alan has had a run and is 20lb better off – but it should my boy right for the Peterborough Chase next month. We'll see it how it goes, but we're thinking about the Queen Mother or the Ryanair over a longer trip.

While Kalahari King has never won at the Festival – he has been placed for three successive years – Kauto Star won two Gold Cups on steeplechasing's greatest stage before a shattering fall last March.

It remains to be seen whether the confidence of the Paul Nicholls-trained horse has been broken. His jockey, the brilliant Ruby Walsh, does not think so, but he does accept that today's race will be instructive.

Either way, Walsh says Kauto Star – 11 on New year's Day – owes him, or racing, nothing. "I don't see any reason why he cannot come back," says the rider ahead of today's seven-runner JNWine.com Champion Chase. "I think he's an incredible horse. He's a once-in-a-lifetime horse. What he does will only had to an illustrious list - two Gold Cups, four King Georges', a Tingle Creek, the Betfair Million.

"There's no pressure. The pressure was in 2007 when winning the first Gold Cup and securing the 1m bonus offered by Betfair. That was pressure."