Dublin Racing Festival: Kemboy and Frodon clash in Irish Gold Cup

Eight runners have been declared for Saturday's Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown, with Paul Nicholls' English raider Frodon and last year's winner Kemboy disputing favouritism for the feature on the opening afternoon of the Dublin Racing Festival.

Paul Townend feels the presence of Frodon could be a help to Willie Mullins' defending champion.

Both horses like to be ridden prominently and Townend is of the belief that a bit of company on the front end will prevent Kemboy from idling.

Kemboy's record at Leopardstown is exceptional, but Townend has never actually won on him there.

"His course form is very good and he ran a cracker there at Christmas as well," said Townend.

"He’s knocking on the door in this and while I haven’t been on his back for any of his wins there, I hope I can make up for that this time around.

"He just seems to come alive there and loves it there. I think at this stage of his career, a horse like Frodon being in there will actually be a help rather than a hindrance.

"He was looking for a bit of company, I felt, at Christmas, so it will probably help him a bit more this time.

"I’d imagine we won’t be giving anything away at the start, it depends how fast they want to go with the other horse. He is growing up in his old age and hopefully we can get him in a nice rhythm."

His stablemate Vauban is also vying for favouritism in the Racing TV ’12 Euros Per Month This Weekend Only’ Spring Juvenile Hurdle despite being beaten on his only outing to date, however, that was against easy Cheltenham winner Pied Piper.

"We like him a lot. We were disappointed when he got beaten but delighted to see what Pied Piper has done since," Townend told Nick Luck’s Daily Podcast.

"I suppose we lack experience, so it’s going