After Diamond Harry made a sensational chasing debut at Haydock on Saturday, the RSA Chase market was blown wide open ahead of this year’s Cheltenham Festival.

His faultless display of jumping in the Grade 2 Sportingbet.com Altcar Novices’ Chase was enough for Betfair punters to back Nick Williams’ superstar into 8.20 (7.2/1) for the RSA Chase and it is not hard to see why.  Always travelling well, he attacked his fences with great venom and punters who have backed the horse to land the Grade 1 at the Festival at odds of 70.00 and 65.00 will be sitting very comfortably come St Patrick’s Day.

However, the performance was not good enough to send him to the top of the market and Nicky Henderson’s exceptionally talented duo Punchestowns and Long Run continue to dominate the exchanges.

Of the £165,000 matched on the event, the pair are responsible for over a third of the money traded and Punchestowns looks a very solid favourite at odds of 4.80.  After tasting defeat behind Big Buck’s in last year’s World Hurdle, he will be hoping that a switch to fences will see him reward punters who were lucky enough to get some of the 15.00 (14/1) on offer about the favourite before the season started.

Many punters believe he will meet his match in stablemate Long Run, the exciting French raider who made a sensational debut in Britain last month.  Currently trading at odds of 7.00, it remains unclear which race Long Run will tackle at this year’s Festival.  However, that has not stopped Betfair punters from backing the horse in from 48.00 to his current price and over £24,000s worth of money currently rests on the star being aimed at the RSA Chase.

Other notable contenders as far as the market is concerned are Weapons Amnesty, currently a 10.00 shot having touched 80.00 and Pandorama, the Irish 15.00 shot who will be looking to build on some good form he has already shown this season.

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