The Cheltenham Festival beckons for Riverside Theatre after he romped to a scintillating success in the Betfair Ascot Chase on Saturday.

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Nicky Henderson’s classy chaser enhanced his Festival claims with an awesome display of jumping and gave a huge compliment to stablemate Long Run who had beaten him out of sight in the King George at Kempton last month.

Sent off a well backed 11/10 favourite, Riverside Theatre beat Gauvain by six lengths and the result never looked in doubt with Barry Geragthy nursing the superstar to victory in some style. 

Paddy Power are giving all new customers a free £100 bet on Riverside Theatre winning the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival and Geraghty explained:  "He quickened well. He ran in the Arkle last year but that was just a bit sharp for him and this trip is ideal for him.  He stays all day and it's much slower ground than it was at Kempton.  I suppose the Ryanair could be a race for him but it's really up to Nicky."

Meanwhile, a delighted Nicky Henderson was left weighing up his options and explained: "We had a bit of a board meeting this afternoon because I didn't think that was his ground.

"He's much better on better ground, but we hadn't been thinking of going to Cheltenham and we were going to wait for Aintree.

"Having said that, I'm not going to rule anything in or out. I'm going to have to sit down with the owners at a later date.

"He's learnt a lot in the jumping department and it's a good compliment to Long Run."