2016 RSA Chase

[Istabraq]

Plenty of interest this weekend. Minella Rocco out again tomorrow - looks backable at 4s.

Good race that one tomorrow, Blacklion goes too.
12:00 off time, all a bit of a rush these days lol

[Old Vic]

Vyta Du Roc hard to work hard to get job done yesterday.

More of that gets job done and jumped well enough apart maybe from one at top of hill.

[Faugheen_Machine]

Thoughts on the Feltham?

imo Native River did very well to finish as close as he did considering he barely jumped a fence - he still looks like he could be an RSA horse to me. Tea for Two jumped and traveled so well, obviously has plenty of speed and looks like the JLT would suit him perfectly.

[Istabraq]

Agreed FM, but jumping under pressure would worry me as would failures on two previous trips to Chelt especially with the hurly burly of an RSA.
It could be he needs even further, the 4 miler is no less frenetic but could be a race that suits better....

[Old Vic]

Impressive display by Ben Paulings horse today

Sky Bet's Racing PR Manager Michael Shinner said: "Ben Pauling has had a tremendous season and Drumacoo looks a really exciting prospect.

"He was a good hurdler but looks set to be an even better chaser and has put himself in the RSA picture with a dominant performance."

Pauling, though, is keen to give his charge more experience before committing to that particular contest at the Cheltenham Festival.

"He's done that very well indeed and you can't expect to beat that sort of company as easily as he did first time out," he remarked.

"I know Value At Risk fell early on, but Fletchers Flyer is a good yardstick.

"God willing he will be sound tomorrow as he has all the ability in the world, but we've got to make sure he comes out of the race spot on.

"The RSA might be an option, but he'll probably want another run between now and then and that will tell us whether or not he's an RSA horse.

"He's not devoid of speed, so the JLT might be another option but he didn't look to be stopping at the line.

"He's a bit of a hot-head at home, you can see that by the fact he had a hood on today, but he settled well and that was fantastic."

[mayo]

Did my thing in the private forum

http://www.fatjockey.com/forum/showthread.php?5935-RSA-Stats-2016&p=22071#post22071

[mayo]

Impressive display by Ben Paulings horse today

Sky Bet's Racing PR Manager Michael Shinner said: "Ben Pauling has had a tremendous season and Drumacoo looks a really exciting prospect.

"He was a good hurdler but looks set to be an even better chaser and has put himself in the RSA picture with a dominant performance."

Pauling, though, is keen to give his charge more experience before committing to that particular contest at the Cheltenham Festival.

"He's done that very well indeed and you can't expect to beat that sort of company as easily as he did first time out," he remarked.

"I know Value At Risk fell early on, but Fletchers Flyer is a good yardstick.

"God willing he will be sound tomorrow as he has all the ability in the world, but we've got to make sure he comes out of the race spot on.

"The RSA might be an option, but he'll probably want another run between now and then and that will tell us whether or not he's an RSA horse.

"He's not devoid of speed, so the JLT might be another option but he didn't look to be stopping at the line.

"He's a bit of a hot-head at home, you can see that by the fact he had a hood on today, but he settled well and that was fantastic."

"He was very impressive but I've spoken to the owner at length and we don't think going to Cheltenham off one chase is the most sensible thing to do so we're going to run him at the Reynoldstown at Ascot in mid-February," said Pauling.

"It's a Grade 2 in its own right and if comes out of it well, then we'll go to the RSA. If he comes back not quite right we can give Cheltenham a swerve. He came out of his race as sound as you could possibly hope, as bright as a button.

[Old Vic]

Reading Rubys column today Killultagh Vic could be his RSA horse with Pont Alexandre going to the 4 miler ?

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/columnists/ruby-walsh/black-hercules-has-the-potential-to-be-a-star-376581.html

[Old Vic]

[Istabraq]

Slightly surprised by the number of 6yo entries given their (relatively) poor record.
Don Poli became the first 6yo winner since Florida Pearl (1998) and only the third since 1978, I'm ignoring Star De Mohaison as 5yo horses were able to receive a massive 10lb from their elders when that one succeeded.
This is a brutal race that stretches stamina to the limit which is why older horses generally perform better, there are trendbusters but the likes of Don Poli and Florida Pearl were exceptional horses even at a young age, are any of this years 6yo challengers exceptional ?
Starting point for me will be 7yo....

[Istabraq]

Bristol De Mai likely to be heading for JLT, makes sense....

[Old Vic]

Outlander intended for this ?

[mayo]

Pricewise finally picks something with a chance ..

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ante-post RSA Chase Pricewise <a href="https://t.co/Qdr1P2Bnbs">pic.twitter.com/Qdr1P2Bnbs</a></p>&mdash; revs (@cardiffrevs) <a href="https://twitter.com/cardiffrevs/status/694614386833498113">February 2, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Yeehaa]

Pricewise finally picks something with a chance ..

Handicapper - 145 in the 3m handicap.

[Faugheen_Machine]

WPM mentioned the possibility of running Black Hercules in this race after today's race. I've had a nibble at 25/1 to cover my bet in the 4 Miler