2-time Gold Cup winner Kauto Star retires

LONDON (AP) - Two-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Kauto Star has run his final race.

Trainer Paul Nicholls says the five-time King George VI Chase winner will retire.

The 12-year-old Kauto Star was pulled up midway through last season's Gold Cup, and his handlers had been considering his future.

Nicholls says "the end of an era has finally arrived.''

Nicholls says he met with owner Clive Smith and "we have taken the decision to retire Kauto Star.''

They had previously considered giving the veteran steeplechaser one last run in the King George at Kempton on Dec. 26.