Cause for King George optimism

Officials at Kempton remain hopeful the cold weather will not prevent Kauto Star bidding for a historic fourth consecutive success in the William Hill King George VI Chase on St Stephen’s Day.

The freezing conditions have claimed plenty of National Hunt meetings during the last week but Kempton clerk of the course, Barney Clifford, is pleased to report conditions at the Sunbury venue as raceable at present.

‘We are forecast temperatures of around minus three every night leading up to Christmas Eve, getting up to plus two during the day,’ said Clifford.

‘Hopefully a milder front will come in from Christmas Day into Boxing Day, but when I say milder, we are only talking about three or four degrees.

‘We are raceable at the moment, which is encouraging, so we're looking in good shape.’