Antepost: Take the McManus pair to take Gold

We've got a great month of racing ahead with plenty of great meetings to look forward to, including the 2 day meeting at Cheltenham. What used to be called the International meeting, is now called the Christmas meeting, and the International Hurdle - which was the centrepiece of the meeting - has now been moved to January.

The main race of the meeting is now the December Gold Cup, which has been won by the likes of Frodon in recent times and is often a race for horses who've competed in the Paddy Power Gold Cup in November, and now are reappearing again over the same track and trip.

This years looks set to include Fakir D'Oudaries according to his trainer, and he will have to give weight all round to some smart horses. Owned by JP McManus, with the class Fakir D'Oudaries has, it's difficult to scratch him off the list of potential winners. It will be really difficult for him to win off a mark of 162 and he has to give weight to 2 other McManus owned horses, and those 2 are who I'm turning to as a couple of horses who will go close here.

Let's start with the joint favourite SO SCOTTISH, who's trading at 7/1 already. Confirmed as his target by his shrewd trainer Emmet Mullins, he had a pipe opener at Gowran over 2 miles a few weeks ago and will strip fitter for this race. We all know what a great target trainer Emmet Mullins is, and if he mentions a target for a pariticular horse then you have to sit up and take notice. 7th in the Plate at the Festival in March, he came into that race as 2nd favourite after only 3 starts over fences. Unseating at Punchestown, if he jumps well here, he will go close off a mark of 141 where he will carry a lovely racing weight of 10 stone 7lb. He ranks as a strong each way bet at 7/1.

Bets:

So Scottish - 2pts ew @ 7/1 (Bet365)

In Excelsis Deo - NON RUNNER

*Price correct as of 02/12/23 18:55