Kauto Star And Denman Head The 2008 totesport Gold Cup Entries

The 2008 totesport Gold Cup promises to be one of the most fascinating renewals in the history of the great race, with the reigning champion Kauto Star poised to battle the brilliant Denman - his stablemate and pretender to jump racing's ultimate crown.

The Paul Nicholls-trained pair are among 42 horses who have been entered for the #450,000 highlight of the four-day Festival at Cheltenham (Tuesday, March 11 - Friday, March 14), an entry that also includes the almost forgotten 2005 totesport Gold Cup hero Kicking King, like Kauto Star, a dual winner of the King George VI Chase.

Kauto Star already has at least two feet indignantly planted across the elusive line that demarcates greatness, having won seven Grade One chases at distances ranging from the two miles of Sandown's Tingle Creek Chase to the extended three and a quarter miles of the totesport Gold Cup.

Clive Smith's pride and joy was the undisputed star of the 2006/2007 season. His versatile alliance of speed and stamina resurrected memories of the great Desert Orchid and he completed a six-race unbeaten campaign when holding Exotic Dancer by two and a half lengths in the big one at The Festival.

With back-to-back wins in the Tingle Creek (2005, 2006), Betfair Chase (2006, 2007) and King George VI Chase (2006, 2007) in the bag, Kauto Star is 11/10 favourite with sponsor totesport to become the seventh multiple winner of the Gold Cup in its 84-year history.

Kauto Star's most recent triumph saw him saunter to a devastating 11-length triumph over Our Vic in the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day. He is rated 184 by Timeform, 8lb clear of his closest rival.

Two days after the champion's Kempton Park romp, stablemate Denman vanquished a top-class field in the Lexus Chase at Leopardstown to consolidate his position as 7/4 second-favourite with totesport.

That Irish triumph may not have been as impressive as the eight-year-old's earlier emphatic 11-length win under top-weight of 11st 12lb in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury, but it did confirm the belief that the resolute galloper could be the horse to push Kauto Star to his limits at Cheltenham in March.

Denman, winner of the Royal & SunAlliance Chase at The Festival in 2007, is rated second-best to Kauto Star with a Timeform rating of 176. That mark is one pound higher than the Jonjo O'Neill-trained Exotic Dancer, the 2007 toteport Gold Cup runner-up who pushed Kauto Star close in the Betfair Chase in November but subsequently wilted in the champion's slipstream on Boxing Day.

A brilliant renewal looks assured and with Grade One winners entered such as The Listener, Neptune Collonges, Star De Mohaison and In Compliance alongside the gutsy 2006 Welsh National hero Halcon Genelardais and progressive types like Mossbank, Aces Four, L'Antartique and Snowy Morning, plenty of connections will be looking at spoiling the Kauto Star party on March 14.