14:40 Cheltenham: Hadrian’s Approach to profit from Dynaste defection
Published:The defection of Dynaste to the Jewson Chase has seemingly made the RSA Chase more wide open and Hadrian’s Approach may be the one to take advantage at 5/1.
Boston Bob is also 5/1, but he has been more workmanlike than impressive in his two career chase starts, with the latest of these coming in the DR. P.J. Moriarty Novice Chase.
Interestingly, three of the last four RSA winners had finished in the first two in this Irish contest, but against Boston Bob is that none of the past 13 victors of the RSA had run any less than three times over the larger obstacles ahead of their Cheltenham Festival success.
Unioniste heads the betting at 3/1 and he won on his first try at 3m last time in the same race that Denman took en route to his RSA Chase victory.
Furthermore, despite only being a five-year-old, he appears one of the safer jumpers in the field and holds clear strong claims.
But, he did only beat Hadrian’s Approach by a short head at Newbury and the runner-up must be deemed slightly unfortunate after pecking on landing over the final flight and then bumping into Unioniste up the run-in, which slowed him a little.
Hadrian’s Approach has continued to improve all season and importantly has been a fairly regular racecourse attendee, which has ensured he has more chasing experience than most.
The big question he has to answer is whether he will cope with the switch to a left-handed track.
Punters wanting a horse that fits the lion’s share of the main trends of recent RSA winners would be best served backing rank outsider Vintage Star at 66/1.
Some 11 of the last 13 winners had met the following four pieces of criteria; they were aged seven or eight, had finished in the first two on their latest start, had run at least three times over fences and were competing in novice hurdles in the previous season.
He is the only horse that fits all four trends, but this is a major hike in class compared to what he is used to this season.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
