Riverside Theatre likely to win Ryanair Chase (Registered As The Festival Trophy Steeple Chase)
Riverside Theatre is tipped to win the Ryanair Chase (Registered As The Festival Trophy Steeple Chase) Grade 1 at Cheltenham in England on Thursday, March 15, 2012. The major event has a cash prize of £148,070.
14 runners were initially lined up for the race, but that number has been reduced to 13, as Realt Dubh, trained by Noel Meade, has been ruled out due to a setback.
The 2 mile 5 furlong race, which is scheduled to start at 2:40 GMT, will see the following runners in action: Riverside Theatre, Noble Prince, Somersby, Medermit, Rubi Light, Albertas Run, Great Endeavour, Blazing Tempo, Captain Chris, Poquelin, Kalahari
King, Forpadydeplasterer and Little Josh.
Considering the recent form of all runners, the bookmakers have favoured Riverside Theatre for today’s race. He has enjoyed a very good time over the past few months and will be looking forward to continue winning races.
The eight-year-old gelding has won two consecutive races previously and will be eying a hat-trick. Overall, he has entered eight chase races, winning five of them. Other than that, he has also secured a runner up place once. This means that there have been
just a couple of occasions, where he failed to make it to the top three.
In his most recent outing, Nicky Henderson’s trainee was rated favourite for victory. He did not disappoint his fans and finished at top of the table by a comprehensive margin of three lengths. The punters will be expecting him to deliver a similar run,
thus they will place the maximum number of bets in his favour.
Riverside Theatre will be partnered by Barry Geraghty, jokey who has an impressive strike rate in chase races. The veteran has won 93 of such events and will be looking to complete a century this season.
On the other hand, Somersby will also be the one to watch out for, as he has been doing a decent job recently. He most recent outing proved to be quite an impressive one, as he managed to win it comfortably.
The eight-year-old gelding has taken part in 14 chase races, winning just four. He will be partnered by Dominic Elsworth, who has earned 54 victories while chasing.
The real competition will be between the top two favourites, as rest of the runners do not seem to have good rhythm at the moment.
Tags: