When Kauto Star and Denman lock horns at Cheltenham on Friday, March 14, the racing world will stand still to witness what promises to be one of the sporting events of the year.

Potentially the two greatest steeplechasers that British racing has seen for decades will go head to head in the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup.

According to champion trainer Paul Nicholls, the pair are "great mates". They spend their summers charging around the same paddock and the remainder of the year in adjacent stables in the front yard at Nicholls' Ditcheat base.

But once out on the racecourse, both are pure professionals and dedicated competitors.

Despite winning the Gold Cup 12 months ago and boasting a winning record that sets him apart from virtually any other horse, incredibly many feel that Kauto Star still has something to prove going into this year's race.

The winner of nine of his last 10 starts, even his dodgy jumping seems to have been ironed out in recent starts and his emphatic victory in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park in December appeared to suggest that he could easily be better than ever.

Owner Clive Smith thinks so. He is in no doubt that Kauto Star will see off the young pretender and prove himself truly the best of the best.

But Harry Findlay, whose mother jointly owns Denman with Paul Barber, sees a chink in the armour of his rival and believes his horse, unbeaten in his last nine races including an awesome weight-carrying performance in November's Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup at Newbury, is the one to exploit the weakness.

Findlay reckons that Kauto Star's stamina reserves are vulnerable over the exhausting three-and-a-quarter miles-plus of the Gold Cup trip and points to a slow early pace playing into the hands of the winner in last year's race.

"Was he really going away from Exotic Dancer on the run-in last year?" he said recently. "Does he really want that much of a test of a stamina? Think of what he did to the best two-milers in the Tingle Creek Chase last year? Can a horse as good as he is over two miles really truly stay the Gold Cup trip?

"I want the answers to those questions as much as anybody. I'm as excited by the build-up to the race as anyone else could possibly be.

"But in Denman I believe I have this year's Gold Cup winner. If we're (Denman) not in front going down the back straight I'll be disappointed. The question is whether Kauto Star can then come and get us. I say he can't."

The battle between two horses of such undoubted talent has drawn inevitable comparisons between the battle for the 1964 Gold Cup between Arkle and Mill House.

Some of those old enough to remember that race may not appreciate the parallels to a contest which most will have imagined to be the best they will ever see.

But there are similarities between the different generations. Denman is the Mill House of the pair, a powerfully-built performer who weighs in at 35 kilos more than Kauto Star, a lighter-framed horse like Arkle.

When Findlay declared his horse to be 'a tank', Smith fired off a text message to him in which he said 'You may have a tank but I have a Maserati'.

But despite the friendly fighting talk between the pair and the obvious differences in both their physical make-ups and the way in which they are trained by Nicholls, those connected to both horses are united in their desire for the same thing in the Gold Cup - a fair fight.

When it looked briefly last month as if Kauto Star might be ruled out of the race through injury, neither Smith or Findlay were able to sleep until the vet confirmed that what had appeared to be a serious leg injury was in fact only a minor foot infection that required 48 hours rest and some mild antibiotics.

Racing breathed a sigh of relief that its most-anticipated battle was back on.

Of course, there will be more than just two horses lining up in the big race.

The likes of Exotic Dancer, Halcon Genelardais and Neptune Collonges would all be worthy contenders for a starring role in 'a normal year'.

But there is precious little that could be described as normal about this year's Gold Cup. Two supremely-talented horses already seem to stand head and withers above the rest.