• Retirement not on agenda for brave pair
• Trainer also sent out What A Friend in fourth
If this was the final flourish, the memory will always be magnificent. Kauto Star and Denman offered no hint of their age as they duelled on the final circuit in the Gold Cup and finished well ahead of most of their younger opponents.
In the end, though, their contribution to the great 2011 Gold Cup spectacle was that of an honour guard that eventually gave way to a new champion, and the question now is how many more times they will return to the fray. For all concerned with the horses, there was a huge sense of pride in their performance afterwards.
"I wasn't expecting very much today but you have to hand it to them, that was an awesome horse race," Paul Nicholls, right, who trains both horses, said. "The best horse on the day won and these three [his third contender, What A Friend, was fourth] have run amazing races. It's just unbelievable.
"Both Kauto Star and Denman are 11 now and Kauto has just lost that little kick coming off the bend but we were committed. All of those people who said he should be retired can eat their words now. We didn't win it but we weren't expecting to. We thought they'd run well and they have done. We were just beaten by a younger set of legs but all credit to the horses to come back and run so well. We wouldn't have run them if we didn't think they could give a good account of themselves and I'm mighty proud of them."
This was Denman's sixth consecutive run at the Festival. He finished second in a novice hurdle in 2006, won the RSA Chase the following year and then the Gold Cup before finishing runner-up in the same race three years running.
"That was lovely," Paul Barber, his owner, said. "I have a dry throat, a dry mouth. He ran another great race but was just beaten by a younger horse. That's six visits here and he's never been out of the first two. He heard that cheer when he came in and he thought it was for him. Mind you, he got almost as loud a cheer as the winner."
Clive Smith, the owner of Kauto Star, was equally delighted with the performance of his long-time favourite, who was also having his sixth start at the meeting.
"What a run," Smith said. "Ruby [Walsh] was able to dictate the pace and he had every chance coming around the turn. He's 11 now but that was still a wonderful performance and I'm so proud of him."
There was no immediate indication of whether either horse will run again this season or indeed at all. There are major meetings at both Aintree and Punchestown on the horizon but both horses have suffered upset defeats at the Liverpool track in the past while Denman looked horribly ill at ease on Punchestown's right-handed circuit last April.
Both are clearly still close to the top of the chasing pyramid but whether either will ever again have the necessary speed to win a race as competitive as the Gold Cup is another matter. Eleven-year-olds have a poor record in the race as it is but in the modern era 12-year-old winners are almost unheard of. Unless fate, in the shape of a fall for the favourite, intervenes, another 12 months is unlikely to bring much improvement in their prospects.
Few bookmakers were willing to put a price against either for next year's Gold Cup yesterday, though Kauto Star in particular may well be aimed at one more run in the King George VI Chase, in which he was beaten this year by Long Run.
Whatever decision is made about their futures, it seems inevitable that both horses will return to Cheltenham on Gold Cup day at some stage. Whether that is for the race itself or the parade of great champions beforehand is another matter.
