Francois Doumen is delaying a decision on committing L'Ami to this season's Cheltenham Gold Cup. The French trainer is not yet convinced the seven-year-old is quite ready for the ultimate test, even though he has performed creditably in two runs in England on his last two starts.

After finishing second to Trabolgan in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury, he was fourth behind Kicking King in the Stan James King George VI Chase at Sandown on St Stephen's Day.

Now both his conquerors have been ruled out of the Festival showpiece in March through injury.

"All I know is that Kicking King will not be there obviously. My horse is going to be entered in the Gold Cup and we'll see what he does in the future," said Doumen.

"He's still a young horse and I'm not so sure if he's ready for the Gold Cup at this stage. We'll run him first, although I do not know where yet, and we'll see what is happening.

"He's having a nice two-week break for the moment in France and I am having a nice break too for the New Year. Then we will look to the future."

Tom Taaffe has warned that Kicking King may not now reappear until next January after being ruled out for the remainder of this season with a tendon injury.

However, the Co Kildare-based handler is confident his eight-year-old Cheltenham Gold Cup winner will return to the track despite the setback.

"Luckily it's in the upper part of his left-fore tendon so it's a good area, as tendon injuries go, to recover from," Taaffe said yesterday. "He's a clear-winded horse and he's an athletic horse, so I would say he's got a very good chance of making a full recovery and, please God, in time for the 2007 Gold Cup - we are going to give him all the time he needs.

"He will be kept doing walking exercises and various other treatments between now and then to hopefully enable a full recovery.

"There's plenty of time involved and there's plenty of horses that have come back in the past and gone on to do good things."