As colours go, grey gets a pretty raw deal.

Try as it might, in most people’s eyes it only conjures up a drab component of the spectrum somewhere between black and white. It is very hard to set the pulses racing or stir the emotions when your dictionary definition includes words such as “dull” and “boring”.

Sorry, but where grey leads austerity must surely follow – after all how can anyone possibly get excited about grey? Just try telling that to the faithful who spent six Boxing Days at Kempton Park worshipping Desert Orchid when he ran in the King George VI Chase.

In truth, while the race card said grey, by the height of his career he was white; a blizzard of muscle and sinew that flashed across the mind as deftly as he did over those 18 fences that he attacked with the relish of a starving man invited to a banquet.

Throughout the years since he was retired, and then died in 2006, it is easy to forget just what an impact this éminence grise of the Turf had. His very presence had the turnstiles clicking round twice as fast and, while his heroic victory in the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup could have brought a tear to a glass eye, he reserved his best for the flat, sharp course in commuter land.

From 1986 to 1991 the tape went up, the old warrior went off and dragged the rest of us along for four thrilling victories that would make the most leaden of hearts soar. It may sound anthropomorphic, but there were times when you could have sworn that this was the greatest showman since PT Barnum himself.

Those three fences in the home straight at Kempton are not for the faint-hearted yet, as if bowing to an unspoken calling of his public, he would launch himself extravagantly at the second-last with the zest of one who knew that this was his domain.

It had to end and it did with a hammering fall in 1991 when Desert Orchid was a spent force, though not to those packed in the stands. First there was the collective intake of breath, the relief as he stood up, almost dismissal of those involved in the finish and then the thunderous ovation as he passed the post as the most applauded riderless horse in racing history.

As the years have rolled by his legion of fans, with myth as opposed to the form book as a point of reference, probably think that he was just preparing to deliver his winning challenge.

Since then the challenge has been for a horse to match his feats although there was a time when saving jump racing at Kempton Park was a greater priority. Back in 2002 the plan from Racecourse Holdings Trust (now called Jockey Club Racecourses) was to lay an all-weather track and the ghost of jump racing at Kempton in one go.

At this point the jump racing fraternity had lost Nottingham, Windsor and Wolverhampton and they mobilised in force to protect one of the totemic races of the season.  Their success will be measured on Saturday when a full house of 22,000 is expected to ignore the siren calls of the sofa and the next slice of cold turkey in favour of joining the snaking queue of cars peeling off the A308, some of which may get onto the car park until just before the second race. They will pass Desert Orchid’s statue, and the headstone that marks where his ashes are buried, in the hope of witnessing another monumental moment.

Even now, as the brains trust behind Racing For Change struggle with the complexities of how to serve up what is an acquired taste to a public whose appetite is often sated by events that seem more in keeping with the fast-food variety, the most sure-fire connection comes with the appearance of a true headline act.

Sea The Stars was not even foaled until four months after Kauto Star had won his first Tingle Creek Chase and the racing public had only a few months to latch on to this charismatic colt before he was retired to stud. So what chance did racing have to engage a wider audience?

Kempton officials have got into the marketing swing by printing cricket-style “4” cards ready to be waved by the crowd although, given the superstitious nature of sport, those closest to Kauto Star may worry about tempting fate as the days tick down to hours and then the six minutes in which history can be made if Kauto Star becomes the first horse to win four consecutive King Georges.

In a training career where the glittering prizes have almost become commonplace Paul Nicholls knows that this is a defining moment for both him and Kauto Star. “I think you have to say he is up there with the very best of all time having won three King Georges already, two Gold Cups, two Tingle Creeks and two Betfair Chases,” Nicholls said in an interview for BHA Xtra. “No horse has ever won four King Georges on the bounce though, and if he did that you’d have to say he was one of the very best.

“We set out our stall this year to have him at his very best on two occasions, the King George and the Gold Cup. “

Nicholls has perfected the art of appearing calm whatever hopes and fear may be dwelling within but one man who knows the emotions that he will be feeling over Christmas is David Elsworth, the man who trained Desert Orchid.

He believes that Kauto Star can join his old favourite on the pantheon of the greats. “I really think he will,” Elsworth said. “He’s a horse who seems even better at Cheltenham, on a left-handed course. He does come out in the middle [of the track at Kempton], and under pressure it might be a bit worrying, but he doesn’t seem to get under any pressure.”

Perhaps not, but whatever happens it will neither be dull nor boring.

Paul Wheeler