Meetmebythesea delivered a first Paddy Power Gold Cup for owner JP McManus at Cheltenham on Saturday, with Harry Cobden riding the 2-1 favourite to a two-and-a-half-length victory.
Meetmebythesea raced level with Blueking D’Oroux, the 10-3 contender trained by champion trainer Dan Skelton, over the final fence. The six-year-old then pulled clear on the run-in. Torneo, a 12-1 chance, finished third, almost three lengths behind Blueking D’Oroux.
Cobden, the 2023-24 champion jump jockey, raised his fists as he crossed the line. The 28-year-old began in May as McManus’s retained jockey in Britain and Ireland.
“These big days don’t come along very often and I’m going to enjoy every single one of them from now on,” Cobden said. “To ride a horse like this in a race like that, you just have to pinch yourself to be in this position. It’s wonderful for the boss, he puts so much into racing, I’m just the lucky man that’s allowed to be part of it.”
The race attracted a reduced field of 10 runners after five non-runners, including highly fancied July Flower. Meetmebythesea still justified top billing. The win was his second major success at Cheltenham, following a novice victory at the Festival in March.
Trainer Ben Pauling praised the performance but declined to commit to a Gold Cup bid at Cheltenham’s March Festival. “He jumped brilliantly and travelled really well… and showed a bit of guts there to win well,” Pauling said. Asked whether Meetmebythesea could be a future Gold Cup horse, he replied: “I don’t know what I see him as.”
Pauling added that the race had been necessary for the horse’s development. “He needed to do that today. I think he showed a lot more than we have seen from him so far, but he’s just really good,” he said. “You don’t know what you have got under the bonnet until you compete in races like that, but that was really cool.”