King team ups the ante

Tom Taaffe will soon increase Kicking King’s workload as he prepares the former Gold Cup winner for an appearance at the Punchestown Festival.

The 10-year-old made an encouraging return from injury when second to Nickname at Gowran Park in January, but disappointed when only third on his second run this year.

Connections were keen to have another crack at the Gold Cup but bypassed Cheltenham after he failed to sparkle in a piece of work.

However, Taaffe is pleased with Kicking King’s current condition and is targeting the feature race on April 23.

“He most certainly is (still on target) and he’ll run in the Guinness Gold Cup on the Wednesday,” said the trainer.

“It’s all systems go and he seems very well. He’ll start working again properly in about a week and he’ll have a nice long run-in to the end of April,” Taaffe told At The Races. "We’ll get him back cantering and he appears to be coming back to himself now.”