Racing/Gold Cup Report: It's just over three years since Ireland's latest Gold Cup hero Kicking King ran in his very first race but even then there was more than a little bit of Cheltenham in his sights.

Tom Taaffe, with a glow of triumph and justification all over his face, enjoyed telling the story yesterday about how Kicking King winning at Leopardstown was the first leg of a rather significant double.

"My son Pat was born the same day and I remember saying that now we have the new Pat Taaffe, we just needed the new Arkle," grinned the man whose admiration for his late father, and the great horse he rode, remains absolute.

It surely wasn't coincidence then that Taaffe's tie yesterday was the bright yellow of Arkle's old colours. Best Mate's dominance of the Gold Cup for the previous three years had provoked the sort of comparisons that Taaffe found almost hurtful. Best Mate is a good horse for sure, but Arkle will always be unique. No one will have appreciated more the significance of that sequence being broken.

"I'm sorry for Best Mate's connections that he couldn't run but if anyone was going to stop him I'm glad it was the Taaffe name, especially to protect Arkle," he said.

That Taaffe name is inextricably linked with the Gold Cup. As if four triumphs in the saddle weren't enough for Pat Taaffe, he also won it as a trainer in 1974 with Captain Christy. That horse was also seven when he scored here but never won the Gold Cup again despite possessing a massive if wayward talent.

However, there was enough in Kicking King's performance yesterday to suggest the best is yet to come.

Even without Best Mate, Kingscliff and all the others who fell by the wayside on the run-up, there was an ease to Kicking King yesterday that was impossible to ignore.

It's not often possible to identify the winner of a championship race at halfway but it was clear as the field turned out for the final circuit that Taaffe's embryonic champion would have to find a rather large hole to fall into to not figure at the end.

With the dour pair, Grey Abbey and Sir Rembrandt, chugging out the pace there was little hiding place in behind. But Barry Geraghty wasn't looking for one.

There might not have been the flamboyant dash for home that characterised the King George but neither was there any hint of unease as they approached the top of the hill just behind the leaders.

In behind Beef Or Salmon was already well beaten and Strong Flow looked ill at ease on the sun-drenched ground. Kicking King's market rival Celestial Gold was creeping closer from the rear but it wasn't Timmy Murphy's most confident creep.

Instead the main confidence was streaming from Geraghty's taut arms as he tried to restrain his mount from tanking away too soon. Geraghty's Gold Cup pedigree isn't bad either considering his grandfather bred the legendary Golden Miller who won five times in the 1930s. Sure enough there was a sureness to his touch that Kicking King could well understand.

Take The Stand was the one to lay down a challenge in the straight but it wasn't until jumping the last that Geraghty got serious and even then there might have been slight smile on his face.

Asked later to compare the feeling with winning on Moscow Flyer on Wednesday, the grin broadened: "It's a photo finish!" Later he added: "I think I can safely say that I am fortunate enough to be riding the two best chasers in racing. Kicking King is some tool - and he is so full of scope."

Beforehand the worry for Geraghty and Taaffe had been the unknown factor of that famous scope from 17 days previously. Kicking King was giving all the right signs on the run-up to the race but as the trainer admitted only the racecourse provides the real answer. Stamina, however, was not an issue.

There had been suggestions from some quarters that the trip might be a problem but Taaffe retorted: "Critics should be silenced. I told them all he would stay but they were too ignorant to listen."

He added: "I never had an anxious moment through the race. In fairness it might not have been the greatest Gold Cup but you can only win. In fact I think he has pissed up. Barry's biggest problem was restraining the horse until the final circuit. We had our bad moment when it looked like he might not run. At one time things were in tatters but we persevered. It is good to have my name up there alongside my father's among the Gold Cup winners."

Beef Or Salmon made an early mistake and Paul Carberry reported that he never really recovered from it while Celestial Gold's trainer Martin Pipe said: "He probably didn't see out the trip."

Take The Stand, however, could try to go even further in the Aintree Grand National and his trainer Peter Bowen said: "I'm gutted to be second but he has run a blinder. The winner was just a little too good and my fellow's few mistakes didn't help. They take it out of you. But the winner is a very good horse."

Bowen was right on both counts. Now Taaffe, Geraghty and an awful lot of people will be hoping Kicking King stays right and continues to progress.

Imperial Call in 1996 was the previous Irish-trained Gold Cup winner and he never was the same again after looking like a real champion on the day.

But as yesterday, and indeed the previous three weeks proved, we are now dealing with a truly exceptional horse.