RSA Chase Betting Guide

“We will have to see how he comes out of this. I’m just warning people that he won’t definitely be going to Cheltenham, because he is such a baby and one doesn’t want to completely ruin him for the rest of his career. He could go to Aintree or Punchestown instead, but we will just have to see. Hopefully he will progress and get stronger, and we hope he would get better, but at the moment we’re very happy.”

"We were delighted with Cooldine and he seems to be an out-and-out stayer. I thought he jumped really well and showed great powers of reserve after the last as he looked beaten and then came back to win. I would think the RSA Chase would be the obvious target for him now as his owner has Golden Silver for the Arkle, so that is the way we would be looking. His best performance over hurdles was at Punchestown when he ran fourth against the older horses. There was no novice race for him there so we ran him in the big stayers' race over three miles and I have no doubts about him getting the trip."

"A winner at Exeter on Tuesday (Cool Friend) has cheered me up because I didn't think the horses had been running that well. He's looking good and I'm very pleased with him. He had a good school round a point-to-point track on Monday and he jumped very well - we are delighted with him. I wouldn't say AP (McCoy) is definitely confirmed, but I'm led to believe that he should be fine. He's not a horse that takes a lot of knowing, but AP does know him very well indeed. They seem to get on very well together and have struck up a great partnership."

"I think he's a good horse, he's a big improver. He wants good ground, he's out of a Phardante mare so he'll be a different horse on good ground. He beat a horse that won on Tuesday (Chief Dan George) by a distance, I like him a lot. He can't half gallop, this big thing - Denis (O'Regan) loves him."

"Lodge Lane is in great form. I would have liked to get another run in before Cheltenham but we didn't manage to do that and he has been doing a lot of schooling. At Kempton he just wasn't there and his confidence was knocked early on after a couple of mistakes. Visually he wasn't the horse he is now, so we will keep our fingers crossed."

There is no reason to think he can't progress further because his jumping early in his races lacked a bit of confidence. That bad mistake made the difference between winning and not on Saturday. It is great to see him back and doing well. We don't have any definite proof yet that he will get three miles. After he won the Ballymore Properties at Cheltenham he went to Aintree over three miles and possibly didn't get home so, therefore, I think probably the way it will go is that he'll run in the Jewson, obviously with nearly top weight, if the ground is softish. If it was good we might had a go at the RSA but we will just have to see closer to the time. You wouldn't normally be running a novice first season against the better horses (in the Ryanair), but it does give us an option over a trip that we know he gets. It's a possibility."

"The SunAlliance is the number one target, He might run in a Grade One race over in Ireland over Christmas, but he doesn’t need any jumping practise and he goes well fresh, so we might give that a miss. He is probably our best staying novice chaser - he’s definitely our most improving anyway. I’ve said to them that this horse could run in the Gold Cup one day - he’s got a lot of ability."

"He has improved enormously, and the best is yet to come. I can definitely see him lining up in the Gold Cup next year. He certainly deserves to be at the head of the betting on the RSA Chase. He wants to be fresh, which is why I haven’t run him since he won at Cheltenham in December. He jumps great, the form’s in the book, and I’m very happy with his prep. I’m not actually too bothered (Ruby Walsh has chosen to ride Cooldine), because Sam Thomas has won on him twice. Ruby’s got to keep everyone happy and we all try to work together."