Cheltenham Head-to-Heads: RSA Chase

/ Will Hayler / 09 March 2010 / Leave a Comment

Will Hayler and Graham Cunningham are very much in opposition over Punchestowns' chances in the RSA Chase - maybe you'll be swayed by one of their arguments...?

Will Hayler: Maybe if Punchestowns had done anything more than prove himself to have four legs and be a competent jumper of steeplechase fences in his two appearances this season, I would see the situation differently. But as things stand, he's the one I want to be against in the RSA Chase and I'll be hoping to lay him for a place at a little over [2.0].

Yes he was about the only horse to give Big Buck's any sort of a race in the World Hurdle last year, but with Kasbah Bliss failing to see out the trip, there was even less strength in depth to that contest than there is to this year's renewal - more of that later in the week. Impressive against ordinary rivals on his chasing debut, the weather then prevented him from turning up to a couple of gigs, but he was back in action at Kempton last month when beating Tchico Polos, ultimately getting well on top having briefly looked in trouble when his rival quickened up from the front on the bottom bend.

Worthy stuff I suppose, but nothing like the challenge he will face in here, where his occasionally-stuttery jumping will be put under maximum pressure. For me, he just doesn't have the experience to deal with the rough and tumble of such an arduous, dirty race. This will be just the tenth start of his entire career over jumps.

I'm not overly mad about Long Run's prospects here, despite the fact that I was blown away by his Feltham Chase performance where the way he came up out of Sam Waley-Cohen's hands at the final fence suggested that he had plenty more left in the tank. If I'm putting my hard-earned down at Cheltenham, the last thing I need is to be worrying about the rider. And despite SWC's big-race experience, that means hands-in-pockets time for me at [3.9] with Long Run (although, funnily enough, I might have thought about backing him at something like [26.0] for the Gold Cup if connections had really bitten the bullet).

If Long Run is ridden prominently and others take him on, this could become a real grind, in which case something like Knockara Beau could run into a place at around the [8.0] mark.


Graham Cunningham: Right, then, Will.

So there is this horse who rises relentlessly through the hurdling ranks to the point where he is second only to the mighty Big Buck's over three miles and in doing so earns an official mark of 173.

He then has his attentions switched to chasing and makes such short work of smart rivals on his first two starts that his trainer Nicky Henderson immediately describes him as one of the best chasers he has trained in his entire career.

And you can't have this horse on your mind for the RSA Chase?

Well, good luck with your opposition to Punchestowns, but you had better hope that a late setback which held him up last week reduces his chance, as your reservations about his jumping and stamina look deeply flawed.

Granted, Punchestowns did make one serious error at Sandown last time, but his jumping is functional overall and unless my eyes deceived me on day three at Cheltenham last year he hit the line in the World Hurdle under two lengths behind the most relentless stayer around and a mere 17 lengths clear of the remainder.

Oppose Punchestowns at your peril, then.

Like many people, I suspect that his biggest danger will emerge from his own stable in the shape of the freakishly gifted five-year-old Long Run and his amateur rider Sam Waley-Cohen.

But Punchestowns has the superb Barry Geraghty on his side. And if that brief period of lameness is behind him he is more than good enough to play a huge part in what promises to be a spellbinding RSA Chase.