Cooldine the real deal!

For the second addition to our ante post portfolio we head again to Ireland and, perhaps not surprisingly, to one of Willie Mullins's novices. However, it is not one of his star trio of novice hurdlers that we are interested in at this stage, but instead one of his slightly less heralded novice chasers, Cooldine.

Cooldine was on many people's radars ahead of last season's Festival as he looked to have a leading change in either the Ballymore Properties or Albert Bartlett. However, he lacked experience at that time and so his connections decided to swerve Cheltenham, a decision that was fully vindicated when Cooldine finished an excellent fourth in the Grade 1 World Series Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival.

The decision to avoid a confrontation with the best novices around was not only taken to allow the horse more time to develop, but also in the knowledge that anything he achieved over hurdles was always going to be a bonus anyway. Indeed, ever since the day that Cooldine impressively won his only point to point in Ireland before his career under rules had begun, his connections have merely been marking time before switching him back to the larger obstacles.

With his apprenticeship over hurdles now well and truly served, he looks ready to hit the big time and his two starts over fences to date have done nothing to dissuade us from that view.

The first was a bloodless win over 2m 2f at Thurles, whilst on his second start he finished third to Follow The Plan in the valuable Durkan New Homes Novices Chase at Leopardstown's Christmas festival.

What was so likeable about that run was that Cooldine was able to mix it with some of the best two mile novice chasers around over a trip that was woefully inadequate for a staying chaser in the making. The natural speed he showed that day could prove devastating when he is upped in trip to 3 miles at the Festival for the RSA Novices Chase.

The horse couldn’t be in better hands either, as he has the same owner / trainer combination as the great Florida Pearl (who won the RSA Chase in 1998) and there are a number of striking similarities in the handling of the careers of the two horses, which suggest that Mullins feels that Cooldine could be the real deal.

At 12-1 for the RSA Chase with most bookmakers, Cooldine certainly looks cracking ante post value.