Racing Punchestown FestivalBrian O'Connor talks to Straffan trainer Tom Taaffe about Kicking King and next week's Punchestown Festival

Amongst the countless images, sounds and emotions of Kicking King's momentous Gold Cup success just 37 days ago, there is one in particular that has stuck in Tom Taaffe's mind.

After the euphoria of actually winning, and the walk back to the most exciting number one spot in racing, came the incessant demands for interviews and the effort of trying to arrange one's tumbled thoughts into some sort of order. But eventually the "just a minute" requests started to recede and then Taaffe was left alone to try and take in the significance of what he had done. He was finding it difficult, and then his partner Elaine made him start walking.

"It was just before the last race of the festival and she said to me to come down to the stable yard. What they do over there is when a horse wins a major championship race they put a plate on the door of the box he has been stabled in. And there it was: 2005 Gold Cup, Kicking King. It probably sounds trivial to many people, but that is something I will remember for a long time, simply standing there looking at that," he says.

No one was likely to appreciate the sentiment or the location more. After all the Taaffe name and Cheltenham and the Gold Cup sit together with the ease of old friends. It will be the same next week at Punchestown.

Pat Taaffe's impact on the 155-year history of the old place was as profound as any, enough certainly to justify the race run in his honour during the festival week. But only the stony-hearted could deny the wonderful sense of continuity there is in his son bringing the most exiting young steeplechasing talent in the country back to the most prestigious week of Ireland's jump racing year.

Kicking King will complete quite a triple crown of his own if, as expected, he carries off Wednesday's Punchestown Guinness Gold Cup. Already in possession of Britain's biggest prizes, the Gold Cup and the King George, victory in four days time will complete a remarkable season for this still developing talent.

Certainly in an era when Best Mate's appearances have been brilliant but fleeting, Kicking King's rise to the top has been a timely reminder that brilliance and fragility need not be constant companions. And the teasing possibility remains that the best is yet to come. "If he stays together I absolutely believe he will keep improving, both physically and mentally. He is still a young horse. That's what people have to remember," says his trainer.

In fact Kicking King was only six when he last visited Punchestown in December. That yielded a Durkan Chase triumph with a display of jumping that was just that little bit different. Everyone knew Kicking King was high class, but this was something else again. Now that that potential has been delivered up on so quickly it will be standing room only to see what he makes of the place this time.

"If you are a high-class athlete like Kicking King then you should be able to handle and cope with any sort of ground or fence or whatever is thrown at you," Taaffe declares with the sort of certitude that served him well in the build up to the Cheltenham Festival.

"I got a lot of stick before Cheltenham. Certain people said to me, to my face, that I was mad running a seven-year-old in the Gold Cup. It was a year too soon, I was told. Other people were asking what I was doing running him at the Gold Cup trip. They were talking about the two mile five furlong race. Even the Champion Chase was mentioned," he says.

A Gold Cup field weakened by the lack of Best Mate and Kingscliff was, nevertheless, dismissed with a nonchalance that couldn't fail to impress. "It was the style and authority that impressed me most. The way he came down to the fourth last, it takes a good horse to do that in a Gold Cup. And the response to what he did has been fantastic. I mean literally we have had letters addressed to Kicking King, Tom Taaffe, Ireland, and they have got to us," Taaffe says.

If the horse can remain in one piece for the future then such speculative air-mail will be a feature of the Straffan Post Office's workload for some time to come. Certainly the impact he has had in this country has been huge. Even in the middle of a record-breaking Cheltenham, which also yielded championship victories in the Champion Hurdle and the Champion Chase, Kicking King has still managed to get pulses quickening just that little bit more. The Gold Cup has always had its own magic for Irish race fans, but the combination of horse and trainer seems to have only added to the allure.

Kingscliff was touted as a major Gold Cup player before a poor work-out cruelly ruled him out. Robert Alner's camp will fancy their chances against Kicking King just as they did last month. But another dominant performance by the Irish horse will knock that confidence considerably. Significantly if that ideal scenario doesn't play out then Taaffe won't be using the "end of a long campaign" line to explain away defeat.

"If that was in my mind then I wouldn't run him. I'm under no pressure to run. Conor Clarkson (owner) is great like that. The horse is mad well and is in better shape than he was going to Cheltenham. Mind you I suppose that isn't surprising considering he was sick going there!

"When you think back to Cheltenham then you can see he had a relatively easy time there. If anything he had a far easier race than he did in the King George. In the Gold Cup he was never off the bridle until after the last and even then it wasn't too much effort either.

"Kingscliff is a good horse but he appears more of a staying type as his win in the Foxhunters suggests. Punchestown is an important race and our horse will learn something from it. When you think back to Kempton and the mistake at the last fence, he had learned from a year before when he fell at Leopardstown. He knew what it felt like and he didn't want it to happen again," he says.

After Wednesday the horse will face into a well-earned summer break at grass after which the slow build-up to next year's Gold Cup can begin. But while Kicking King is kicking his heels up, Taaffe will be in more pensive form, trying to get things in perspective. Such matters are important to him. His ability to keep perspective was never better illustrated than in the run-up to Cheltenham when Kicking King's brief spell of illness threatened to scupper an awful lot of work.

"I don't like to build things up too much because then you only have further to fall. You just do what you do and see what happens. It was quite stressful before we eventually decided to go, but once that was done I was happy that we had done our best. We knew he had the credentials to run a proper race. Barry was confident as well," Taaffe declares.

Barry Geraghty will again have the mount on Kicking King at Punchestown, just 24 hours after he is also due to ride Moscow Flyer in the Kerrygold Champion Chase. In terms of steeplechasing talent, few jockeys can ever have had such firepower at their disposal.

It's enough for Jessica Harrington to have started winding Geraghty up about which one he would choose if they ever clashed, say over two and a half miles.

"It would be a serious challenge, wouldn't it," acknowledges Taaffe who quickly adds that such a choice is never likely to occur. Nevertheless it's one of those teasers that will keep jump fans dreaming through the summer when those flaky flat types will keep things ticking over.

"A challenge, but one we wouldn't walk away from," he adds.