Bravemansgame booked a trip to the Kauto Star Novices' Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day with an impressive win at Haydock.
Paul Nicholls' charge made it two from two over fences with another faultless display, making all the running and jumping well throughout.
He had the chasing pack in trouble by the turn for home and another fluent leap at the last sealed matters.
He won, unextended and easing down, by two-and-a-three-quarter lengths from Itchy Feet.
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Bravemansgame was cut to 8/1 from 10s by Betfair and Paddy Power for the Marsh Chase at Cheltenham. Sky Bet are 4/1 from 7s for the RSA.
Nicholls said: “He’s progressing nicely and that was great against older horses. He did that well, he’s progressing nicely and has hardly had a race, to be honest – he’s obviously very good. Hurdles got in his way a little bit, as they do for all those good chasers. He’s got so much scope for chasing and Harry’s smile said it all really – he’s a proper one. He’s got everything you want really – jumping ability and gears and stays well.”
Next on the agenda for the winner is the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day – and Nicholls hopes he might return to the Sunbury venue 12 months later for the big one.
“The Kauto Star is the obvious race to go for. Three miles round Kempton will be brilliant for him, so he’ll go there,” Nicholls added.
“If he’s good enough to go to Cheltenham with a winning chance we’ll go, but it’s a long way off and we’ll make that decision nearer the time. Someone asked me there ‘what’s the target’ and I said the 2022 King George. God willing, if everything is all right, that’s the sort of race he’ll be running in.
“I think last year when I compared him with Denman I wasn’t too far off the mark when you look at one they’d done at this stage of their career. God willing he might progress to do what he did – it’s nice to think he might.”
Harry Cobden added: “He jumps as well as any horse I have ever ridden. That was only his second run over fences and he is an absolute please to ride. Gav (Sheehan, rider of runner-up Itchy Feet) and I were chatting on the way round and he said ‘mine is jumping well but yours is jumping even better!’
“He is very clever with his jumping. Long or short, he is always spot on and is a very easy horse to ride. We don’t have to make the running – when there are more runners, he could definitely get a lead. He is just the ultimate professional.”
