TODAY'S PREVIEW/Gold Cup Preview: Cheltenham Gold Cup clash between Kauto Star and Denman has already been hyped to tipping point but at the risk of sending the hyperbole needle off the dial completely, victory for the reigning champion might yet require one of the greatest performances this famous racetrack has ever seen.
Of course all the anticipatory build-up might well fizzle out with a fall at the first fence, or the emergence of some virulent bacteria with no sense of occasion.
It's hardly unknown after all for eagerly-awaited sporting clashes to end up having all the entertainment value of a slow night in Scunthorpe. Anyone remembering last year's All-Ireland finals for instance will check at least some of their dreams in at the reality desk before 3.30 today.
But there's still no getting away from the idea that this really might be one of those 'I was there' moments of the sort that those millions who evidently packed in here in 1964 to see Arkle and Mill House have been prattling on about ever since.
We know Kauto Star is good enough to allow even those with just a fleeting appreciation of a jumping thoroughbred get excited about this clash with his next door neighbour at Paul Nicholls's stable. The evidence is already there that he is as brilliantly versatile a steeplechaser as anyone has seen since Desert Orchid.
How good Denman might be, though, is unclear even to those closest to him. He may well be better than Kauto Star. Listen to his flamboyant co-owner Harry Findlay for long enough and there's a convincing argument can be made that three and a quarter miles-plus around here is really Denman's patch and not Kauto's. In fact, when the chances of soft ground were increasing earlier in the week, so many were taking the argument on board that Denman looked like starting favourite.
If ever a horse was built for a stamina-slog around Cheltenham it is Denman. Capable of maintaining the sort of remorseless gallop that would make him an odds-on shot in any normal Gold Cup year, he looks clear of any of his other rivals. They include the sole Irish hope, Afistfullofdollars, a £22,500 supplementary entry last weekend, as well as the former Welsh National winner Halcon Genelardais.
Another pair of Nicholls's hopes in Neptune Collonges and Star de Mohaison might even stir memories of a Michael Dickinson-like rout of the opposition as in 1983.
Boil it all down, however, and every shred of evidence suggests this Gold Cup really is a match between the next-door neighbours from Somerset.
Clear of their rivals on ratings, they bring equal but distinctive strengths to the finale of this unique Cheltenham Festival. Denman is the swaggering ex-Irish point-to-pointer whose massive physical size allows him devour the ground in a remorseless gallop that has seen him beaten only once in his career.
Kauto Star on the other hand is the precociously talented French- bred star whose speed is enough to make him top class at two miles as well as three. Normally such a boast is something of a double-edged sword around here. Horses with that kind of acceleration often get found out around the gruelling Gold Cup circuit.
And despite winning last year, there are still plenty out there willing to believe that stamina is still an issue.
The Denman style is to grind from the front anyway but in this case, instinct is set to row along with tactics. A Denman victory requires the accent to be put on pressuring Kauto Star from the off. For much of the way, the reigning champ will probably handle the pace comfortably. What Findlay & Co are betting on is that the final hill will find him out.
With most rivals, they would confidently back themselves to be right. What's different here is that Kauto isn't most anything. If, indeed, it comes down to a toe-to-toe scrap up the Cheltenham straight, then Kauto Star might have to be even more exceptional than he has already shown. The startling suspicion is that he might just be.
Kauto Star's King George stroll at Christmas was possibly the best single performance of his career to date. His last race at Ascot yielded a brief injury scare but also crucially further evidence that when Ruby Walsh goes for more, there is an extra gear in that elegant bay frame that maybe only a handful of steeplechasers have ever had.
Walsh will probably have to call on it today to beat Denman but expect Kauto Star to respond to the ultimate challenge.
TONY SWEENEY'S Three To Follow
2-0: WHATUTHINK (EW).
To settle pub arguments yesterday's 10-race card was not an English record National Hunt programme as Manchester in 1912 and Windsor twice in 1945 had 11 races in a single afternoon.
Whatuthink may have been denied a run on Wednesday but still a rates an each-way long shot. A sick horse last time out when fifth behind Forpadydeplasterer, Whatuthink had previously beaten the latter, Cork All Star and Majestic Concorde to win the Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown.
2-15: FRANCHOEK (NAP).
J P McManus bought into the Alan King stable when he bought Franchoek last autumn and it looks a wise move for not only did King win this race 12 months ago with Katchit but he has fashioned that winner into a Champion Hurdler. Franchoek has proved his liking for Cheltenham and when he beat Won In The Dark here by eight lengths in November, he was accounting for one of Ireland's most consistent Irish juveniles.
2-50: GONE TO LUNCH (N.B.)
Following yesterday's third Stayers' Hurdle success for the tough-as-nails Inglis Drever, a Grade One Novices Hurdle could be within the compass of Gone To Lunch who over this course and distance and in receipt of 8lb only was a nine -length third to the champ in January. Gone To Lunch had previously proved his stamina which will surely be a prime necessity today
