The early favourites for the Paddy Power Gold Cup

There is such an emphasis on the Cheltenham Festival in this day and age in British and Irish jumps racing.

All roads lead to the prestigious, March-held meeting from the very start of the season, and many horses are trained specifically with one of the Festival’s 28 races in mind.

Bettors are always looking for clues when checking the ante-post horse racing odds for the Cheltenham Festival, and the November Meeting tends to be a good place to start.

The three-day meeting is set to take place at Prestbury Park between 17-19 November and is one of the highlights of the season.

The Paddy Power Gold Cup is the feature race of the November Meeting, with the two-mile, four-furlong Premier Handicap taking place at 14:20 on November 18.

That said, let’s take a look at early favourites for the contest in the ante-post betting.

Stage Star – 5/1

Stage Star upped his game massively when sent novice chasing by Paul Nicholls last season, winning at Warwick on reappearance before coming home second behind Sebastopol in the Grade 2 Novices’ Chase at Newbury next time out.

The seven-year-old then went on a run of three-straight wins, beating Mortlach by a comfortable 11 lengths in a two-horse race at Plumpton on January 2, and then picking up back-to-back wins at Cheltenham.

The first of those was in a Novices’ Handicap Chase later in January. However, he produced a career-best when winning the prestigious Grade 1 Turners Novices’ Chase by over three lengths at the Festival in March.

He was last of five runners in the top-level Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree, but you could argue that was the result of a taxing campaign.

Stage Star goes well fresh, and he’s hard to oppose here.

Fugitif – 9/1

A consistent performer last season, Fugitif showed stark improvement over fences for Richard Hobson after a hit-and-miss campaign as a novice chaser in 2021-22.

The eight-year-old was a close second in the Paddy Power Handicap Chase at Cheltenham on reappearance last November, and won by five lengths from Golden Whiskey next time out at Chepstow.

He was then second in back-to-back contests at Prestbury Park, finishing runner-up to Il Ridoto by a length in a Premier Handicap in January, before finishing second to Seddon by two lengths in the Plate at the Cheltenham Festival.

Like Stage Star, there are arguably excuses for Fugitif’s lacklustre performance in the Grade 1 Marsh Chase at Aintree in April, as it was another taxing season.

But he also goes well fresh and should prove a solid challenger to Stage Star if you’re looking for horse racing tips.

Unexpected Party – 9/1

Dan Skelton set the bar quite high for Unexpected Party in his novice chasing campaign last year, and while he failed to pick up a win over the bigger obstacles, he certainly didn’t disgrace himself.

The eight-year-old was second on reappearance at Exeter, before finishing third and some distance behind Jonbon in the four-runner Grade 1 Henry CII Novices’ Chase at Sandown.

Unexpected Party was a distant second next time out at Leicester and was third in the Novices’ Handicap Chase won by Stage Star at Cheltenham in January.

He could fare no better than fifth when back in Grade 1 company for the Turners at the Festival, however, and ended the season with a third-place finish in the Grade 2 Future Champion Novices’ Chase at Ayr.

There was an improvement from the Skelton-trained horse when he reappeared for this season last month, as he won the Listed Robert Mottram Memorial Trophy at Chepstow last month.

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Notlongtillmay (10/1), Festival winner The Real Whacker (12/1) and Final Orders (14/1) are some of the other horses near the fore of the betting.