Stage Star on course for Cheltenham return
Connections are hopeful Stage Star will give his legion of owners plenty to shout about when the Cheltenham Festival hero returns in the Paddy Power Gold Cup on Saturday week.
Trained by Paul Nicholls, the seven-year-old is 5-1 favourite with the sponsors ahead of his return in the prestigious handicap that is the feature of Cheltenham’s three-day November meeting.
It is at Prestbury Park where Stage Star enjoyed some of his finest moments over fences last term and having carried a huge weight to victory on Festival Trials Day, returned in March to claim the Grade One Turners Novices’ Chase with a fine front-running display.
His course form gives his ownership team plenty of hope ahead of his seasonal reappearance and although disappointing when a heavy favourite on his final start of the 2022-23 campaign at Aintree, he is yet to finish outside of the first two when running between October and December.
“He’s in good form and obviously likes the track,” said Dan Downie of Owners Group, owners of Stage Star.
“He’s ready to go and this has been the target for a while. It’s going to be tough and he’ll be carrying a lot of weight, but Paul is happy with him and we’re looking forward to running him.
“We looked at a few options, but he does need to go left-handed, so we were a bit short on where we could go, But we know he loves the track so we thought this would be a reasonable starting point for him.”
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