RACING: A comprehensive, if relatively unspectacular, four-length victory for Denman in yesterday's Lexus Chase at Leopardstown means Ruby Walsh will continue to endure the question of whether he will ride the giant young pretender or the reigning champion, Kauto Star, in the Cheltenham Gold Cup for a little longer yet.
Denman's defeat of Mossbank and The Listener didn't have the same champagne style that Kauto Star exhibited in his King George rout at Kempton on Wednesday. But different doesn't mean worse, and the anticipation of a potentially classic Gold Cup battle between the Paul Nicholls-trained pair can continue.
That's good news for the sport in general but, even allowing for jump racing's savage casualty rate, Walsh could yet end up having to make the sort of mammoth decision that only a few sportspeople have had to take.
Those rugby powers that juggled the Tony Ward-Ollie Campbell outhalf teaser nearly 30 years ago might sympathise with the champion jockey's dilemma.
However, they could operate in comparative anonymity. Walsh has a choice that will be as agonising as it is enviable, and there won't be much peace while he ponders.
Bookmaker reaction to yesterday's win won't help him much either, as the general response was to leave things as they were, with Kauto Star a general 5 to 4 favourite and Denman on 2 to 1 for the Gold Cup. Their dominance is such that it's 12 to 1 bar the pair.
Not surprisingly, Walsh was playing the sort of straight bat to the "pick" question that Geoff Boycott would have been proud of.
"It's Denman's day," was his initial reaction. Later he expanded: "He did all you could ask. It's a very hard place here to make all the running. But I didn't mind being in front. Apart from Beef Or Salmon, I was the only one sure to stay. He's a good horse."
The beauty of the situation is that in Kauto Star and Denman there are two exceptional chasers at the peak of their powers, and even with 10 weeks to the Gold Cup the anticipation of their first clash is already rising.
"I've never seen a horse better in the air at getting out of trouble," proclaimed Denman's flamboyant part-owner and famous gambler, Harry Findlay. "That cleverness won us the race today. And three miles and two furlongs at Cheltenham is set up for us."
Paul Nicholls has the job of delivering them both in peak shape at the right time, and Newbury's Aon Chase in February is likely to be Denman's final prep for Cheltenham.
"That's not set in stone and there are other options, like coming back here (Hennessy Gold Cup)," Nicholls said. "I wondered if we were going fast enough today, but Ruby knows this place better and he said it isn't a place to be blitzing around.
"Unlike the Hennessy, he's hardly having a blow today. He's a lot straighter and he proved again he's a great jumper," he added.
Denman's performance was the centrepiece of the third day of the Christmas festival, but there was also a Grade One triumph for Notre Pere, whose trainer, Jim Dreaper, is based at Greenogue in Co Dublin, the stables where two other outstanding chasers from the same yard were based in the 1960s - Arkle and Flyingbolt.
They never raced against each other in public, but, as Walsh knows better than anyone, the clock is ticking down on what could be a clash to bring to mind jump racing's heyday.
Yesterday's Leopardstown crowd of 17,597 was the biggest of the 2007 Christmas festival, although it was a reduction of almost 1,000 on last year. Tote turnover was up, however, to €701,195 from €636,473. The bookmaker figure of €2,365,740 was down from last year's €2,523,362.
A smaller crowd is expected for the fourth and final day of the festival this afternoon, when Hardy Eustace will be the star name among the six runners for the Grade One Bewleys Hotels December Festival Hurdle.
