Tennis

Kauto Star rated 50-50 for Gold Cup after fall

Published Mar. 1, 2012 12:30 p.m. ET

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Kauto Star is rated only a 50-50 chance to race at the Cheltenham Gold Cup this month after a heavy fall in training.

The two-time champion was set to renew a rivalry with 2011 winner Long Run in the celebrated race on March 16, but trainer Paul Nicholls says ''Kauto Star won't be going anywhere near Cheltenham unless we are all convinced ... that he is 110 percent right.''

Nicholls says the 11-year-old Kauto Star took ''a pretty awful fall'' last week.

Kauto Star beat Long Run in December to win the King George VI Chase for an unprecedented fifth time.

A third Gold Cup success after success in 2007 and '09 would make Kauto Star become the oldest winner since 1969.

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