CHELTENHAM (England), March 18: Irish trained favourite Kicking King, ridden by Barry Geraghty, won the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday. Second place went to 25-1 outsider Take The Stand, the mount of Tony Dobbin, with 12-1 chance Sir Rembrandt third of the 15 runners.

Kicking King, sent off at 4-1, took over from the front-running Grey Abbey with two fences to jump and readily held off Take The Stand up the Cheltenham hill. The Gold Cup had suffered a triple blow in the run-up to the race.

Three-times winner Best Mate was pulled out afer breaking a blood vessel, his successor as favourite Kingscliff failed to sparkle in his final workout and on Wednesday 12-1 shot Farmer Jack collapsed and died on the gallops.—Reuters