Meetmebythesea ends McManus’s Paddy Power Gold Cup wait

Ridden by Harry Cobden, the heavily backed 2-1 favourite beat Blueking d’Oroux by two and a half lengths, finding more on Cheltenham’s uphill finish after the pair jumped the last fence together. The six-year-old collected £91,120 and turned a successful novice campaign into something more substantial: victory in a major open handicap on his first appearance since March.⁠5⁠6⁠1

There is already talk of the King George VI Chase at Kempton on December 26. But the distinction matters: this was a carefully chosen target delivered, not a Christmas engagement confirmed. McManus’s first response was to credit the trainer who had picked the race. “I left it to Ben and this was his plan, you have to give him all the credit,” he said in comments reported by Sky Sports.⁠4

For Pauling, the attachment went back much further than this horse’s campaign. He had been attending the meeting since he was 14, and this was one of the races that drew him into the sport. Having talked confidently beforehand, he found the nerves arriving about 20 minutes before the start. “To have the favourite was a dream so to win it is even better,” he said.⁠4

Cobden’s approach was to keep Meetmebythesea prominent rather than trust to a late recovery. Pauling said the jockey wanted to ride forward because horses coming from behind were struggling to get into contention that day. The horse’s jumping and ability to travel at pace made that plan possible.⁠4

Quebecois led for much of the contest before fading, leaving Blueking d’Oroux as the principal threat on his first start for Dan Skelton. Pauling admitted he was worried by how strongly that rival was travelling turning for home. At the final fence, the race was still there to be won; on the climb to the line, Meetmebythesea settled it.⁠1⁠4⁠5

That response under pressure was the most useful part of the performance for a trainer trying to discover his horse’s ceiling. Pauling thought Meetmebythesea still had plenty left at the last and praised the pace he showed for such a big horse. This was not simply a smooth traveller finishing off a comfortable assignment: when Cobden asked, he found more.⁠4

Blueking d’Oroux, the 10-3 second favourite, finished two and three-quarter lengths ahead of the 12-1 third Torneo, trained by Jamie Snowden and ridden by Gavin Sheehan. Top-weight Matata was fourth. Dunkerque took sixth on his first Class 1 appearance, earning £2,144; Henry de Bromhead’s Zurich was well beaten in seventh, while Paul Nolan’s Release The Beast failed to complete.⁠7⁠6⁠11

The conditions belong in the assessment too. Only ten of the 15 declared horses ran, with four withdrawals because of the ground. July Flower was among the absentees. The going was listed as good, while GG.co.uk’s race-day account described good, good-to-firm patches. Those withdrawals changed the field, but do not erase the contest the winner had to win.⁠11⁠5⁠3⁠6

The Class 1 Premier Handicap covered two miles, four furlongs and 44 yards on Cheltenham’s Old Course, over 16 fences. GalopSport reported a winning time of four minutes 52.36 seconds, 8.64 seconds faster than standard. That is useful context, not a championship certificate. This November handicap is distinct from the longer Cheltenham Gold Cup staged at the Festival in March.⁠3⁠7⁠11⁠5

Meetmebythesea had already won the Jack Richards Novices’ Handicap Chase at that Festival. Returning from the break to win here strengthened the case that he can progress beyond novice company. For Cobden, who pumped his fists crossing the line, it was also his biggest success so far as McManus’s retained rider and his second major win in those colours in two days.⁠6⁠5⁠4

The 28-year-old, Britain’s champion jump jockey in 2023–24, took up the McManus role in Britain and Ireland in May after a decade as Paul Nicholls’s number one. “These big days don’t come along very often and I’m going to enjoy every single one of them from now on,” he told ITV Sport, as reported by BBC Sport.⁠5⁠6

The next question is harder than whether Meetmebythesea could land this handicap. Kempton would mean three miles at the highest level. Pauling won the previous Christmas’s King George with The Jukebox Man and believes this horse would stay the distance. “I suppose we have to think about Kempton at Christmas,” he said.⁠4

BetVictor shortened Meetmebythesea’s King George price from 25-1 to 12-1 after the victory. Those were the bookmaker’s post-race odds, not a forecast or evidence that the horse would run. Bookmakers also cut his Cheltenham Gold Cup price, but Pauling stopped short of defining him as a future contender for that longer Festival championship. He suggested the current trip, or three miles on a flat track, might be the right range for now.⁠4⁠6⁠5

McManus named the King George, Champion Chase and Arkle as races he still wanted to win, while stressing that Meetmebythesea was only six and that this November race had been the plan. There is no need to turn one ambition fulfilled into an obligation to chase the next immediately.⁠4

Pauling’s own qualification is the best guard against getting carried away: “He might have to improve another 10 to 15lb to be winning a big one.” That is his estimate of the further performance required, not an official rating increase. Meetmebythesea has earned consideration for a bigger test. He has not yet answered it.⁠4