Destiny beckons for Kauto and Denman in the battle for jump racing's ultimate prize

Twenty-nine days and 450 miles. There was not much between Kauto Star and Denman when they came into the world, and it is the ardent wish of 65,0000 racegoers that the same will be true at Cheltenham today. In the spring of 2000, they were just two among many thousands of thoroughbreds foaled in Europe, but their paths soon converged in Paul Nicholls's stable in Somerset and now, at last, they will do so on a racecourse too.

Kauto Star was the first to arrive, at the small stud farm of his breeder, Henri Aubert, near Le Lion D'Angers in the west of France. Less than a month later, Colman O'Flynn's broodmare Polly Puttens delivered a colt foal at his stud in Rathcormac, near Fermoy in County Cork.

It was Denman who certainly made the most immediate impression. "His mother had 10 foals in a row, which is quite unusual," Edmond Kent, O'Flynn's son-in-law, said yesterday. "Then unfortunately she dropped a foal, so she had a bit of a holiday. Because of that she seemed to put a lot more into the next one, and he was like two instead of one. Everything was extra-big.

"He was so heavy-boned he wouldn't have looked out of place in a hunt, but he was always very athletic. The first day he jumped, the penny dropped after two jumps and he never put a foot wrong from that day on."

Denman was not an early starter at racing, however. The first time that O'Flynn sent him to the sales, in 2004, he failed a veterinary inspection and had a minor wind operation as a result. Then he was sent a few miles down the road to Lombardstown, to be trained by Adrian Maguire.

By the time Denman first saw a course, in a point-to-point at Liscaroll on March 20 2005, Kauto Star was already 12 races into his track career, having shown enough as a four-year-old in particular to earn a big-money move to England.

"His breeder sold him as a yearling to a trainer called Serge Foucher," Anthony Bromley, the bloodstock agent who bought Kauto Star on behalf of Clive Smith, says. "They start racing over jumps very early in France, and he made his debut [at Auteuil] in Paris in the March of his three-year-old season. He only won four out of 12 in France, but he was racing at a very high level all the way through. People have asked me why I stuck my neck out to buy a horse which had been beaten so many times, and it was the last of those that persuaded me.

"It was the Prix de Longchamp at Auteuil, a Grade Three, and he was awesome. He beat all the top four-year-olds in France, including all the horses that had been beating him. Horses can be stagnant or they can keep improving, and he was clearly on the upgrade. I sent a video of the race to Clive, and he was sold within a few days."

It was in defeat that Kauto Star's immense promise first became obvious to British racegoers, on January 31 2005. He fell when hot favourite for a race at Exeter, was remounted by Ruby Walsh, and failed by only a short-head to reel in the winner. But Kauto Star injured a hind leg in the process, and by the time he returned to the track, on November 1 2005, Denman had arrived from Ireland to begin his near-perfect career for Nicholls.

"As soon as Paul [Nicholls] saw him, he said 'I'll buy him'," Paul Barber, his owner, said recently. "I said, no you won't, I will."

Barber, a dairy farmer, then sold a half-share to Harry Findlay, the professional punter with whom he has formed a strong, if unlikely, alliance in recent years. Last season, he raced in Findlay's purple silks, but this year he will carry Barber's green with a white chevron at Cheltenham. Every inch the chaser, Denman still managed to win four of his five starts over hurdles, with the only reverse coming up the unforgiving Cheltenham hill.

Denman finished second to Nicanor in the Royal & SunAlliance Novice Hurdle on March 15 2006. Seventy-five minutes later, Kauto Star fell at the third when favourite for the Queen Mother Champion Chase. Until 3.30pm this afternoon, it was as close as they had ever come to meeting each other at the Festival.

For both Denman and Kauto Star, last season was perfect. Denman was five-from-five, while Kauto Star went one better, with six straight wins. Both won at the Festival, and as the crowds drifted away on Friday evening, Kauto Star was ante-post favourite to win a second Gold Cup, with Denman, fresh from an emphatic victory in the Royal & SunAlliance Chase two days earlier, the only other horse at single-figure odds.

While their recent form figures look much the same, though, their running styles remain very different. Denman is expected to be prominent and powerful, with Kauto Star more likely to cruise and quicken. One promises to complement the other in racing terms, making it as likely as anything can be in a horse race that, even if it is just for a few compelling strides, Kauto Star and Denman will be upsides each other at the business end of today's much-anticipated clash.

Though both are racing for the Nicholls yard, where they peer out of adjacent boxes, their different backgrounds add another layer to the rivalry. Just as Gladiateur, the first French-bred to win the Derby, was nicknamed The Avenger of Waterloo by the French even though he was trained in Newmarket, so are both Denman and Kauto Star, in a sense, running for the countries of their birth.

"They are both owned by Englishmen and trained by an Englishman," Bromley says, "but there is a definite undercurrent, a rivalry between the bloodstock industries in Ireland and France. The Irish really don't like me buying so many French horses. They are desperate to see beat my French horse, as they put it."

It is typical of this contest. It draws everyone in, from punters in the betting shops to breeders in the French provinces. And now that everyone has lined up behind their champion, it is time, at last, for the talking to stop.

How the race will be run

Denman has been in front from as early as the third fence in his recent races but his jockey, Sam Thomas, will not want to press on too early. That task may fall to his stable companion Neptune Collonges, who was prominent for a long way last year and was headed only at the second last fence when Kauto Star took command. Expect Ruby Walsh to arrive earlier on the scene on the favourite this time because he will not want to allow Denman too much rope when Thomas kicks for home at the top of the hill. Knowhere could be a strong finisher for third.

The tale of the tape

Kauto Star

Foaled March 19 2000

Breeder Mme Henri Aubert

Owner Clive Smith

First British win Newbury December 2004

Career record 25 starts, 15 wins, 5 seconds

Jockey Sam Thomas

Timeform rating 184

Career prize money £1,182,717

Festival record 2 runs, 1 win, 1 fall

Denman

Foaled April 17 2000

Breeder Colman O'Flynn

Owner Paul K Barber and Mrs M Findlay

First British win Wincanton Oct 2005

Career record 13 starts, 12 wins, one second

Jockey Ruby Walsh

Timeform rating 178p

Career prize money £408,835

Festival record 2 runs, 1 win, 1 second