If you are a ‘Kauto Star’ fan like me you will have been very disappointed with the Gold Cup and if you watched the race had your heart miss a beat or two when ‘Kauto’ fell onto his neck. The hot favourite hit the fifth fence hard and that soon looked to be the end of his race this was followed by a nasty fall later in the race.

In my opinion however, and it is only my opinion, is that ‘Kauto Star’s’ defeat was maybe not entirely the horse’s fault. I am not talking out of my pocket as I didn’t back the horse, not at that price, but despite the huge amount of respect I have for the ability of Ruby Walsh, I feel he is partly responsible.

I have not heard any else mention this but it looked to me that Ruby did not present his mount to the fence as other jockeys were doing with their horses. That is to say he did not ask ‘Kauto’ to jump. I am not a jockey and I don’t pretend to know the best way to ride ‘Kauto Star’, but it did look to me that other jockey’s in the race asked their respective mounts to jump so to speak and it was more difficult to see if Ruby Walsh had done the same.

Once again, this is only my opinion, but my wife who has ridden and show jumped for years, when she saw the race thought the same thing. Just in case you are wondering, I did not tell her what I had thought first. I would be very interested to see if anyone else who saw the saw noticed something similar.

I am certainly not trying to put all of the blame on Ruby Walsh, this is racing after all. But at the moment all the stories talk about is ‘Kauto Star’s’ errors and I don’t believe that a horse that has been readied by one of the very best trainers or all time for the race makes at least two bad errors and no one else it even partly to blame.

It is very likely that the first mistake knocked the horse’s confidence that much and he had to try so hard to regain his position that the second mistake and subsequent fall were almost inevitable.

No one is infallible, not even Ruby Walsh or Tony McCoy, it’s just that I am a little surprised that all the blame has fallen on the horse and none on the jockey as far as I know. Not that it matters I suppose, but I would be interested to hear if your opinions no matter what you think.

Today’s Tip is simple, don’t back at very short prices in races that are as competitive as The Gold Cup was this year because no horse is infallible and no jockey is either.