Paddy Power install joint favourites for Gold Cup

It Takes Time and Poliantas have been installed 6-1 joint-favourites by the sponsors for the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham.

The £110,000 (€160,000) contest, formerly known as the Thomas Pink Gold Cup, will be run over an extended two and a half miles on November 15 and has attracted 51 entries. Eight are from Ireland.

Champion trainer Martin Pipe has sent out the winner of the race on six occasions, including for the last three seasons.

This year there are seven entries from the Nicholashayne operation headed by It Takes Time and Cyfor Malta, winner in 1998 and last season. He is rated a 14-1 chance to land a record third success.

Nicky Henderson has won most of the major prizes in National Hunt racing but the Paddy Power Gold Cup is one of the few to have eluded him.

There are four entries from the Seven Barrows trainer this time. They are Geos, Fondmort, Isio and Iris Royal.

Paul Nicholls is another yet to record a victory in the Paddy Power Gold Cup and he is out to correct that with five entries.

The Nicholls quintet is headed by Poliantas, runner-up to Cyfor Malta 12 months ago, and includes Armaturk, Royal Auclair, Exit Swinger and St Pirran.

Royal Auclair won the Cathcart Chase when trained by Pipe, while Exit Swinger is another ex-Pond House horse who finished third in the equivalent of the Paddy Power race in 2001 and was runner-up the year before.

Philip Hobbs, successful with Joint Sovereignty in 1989, has four to choose from including Brother Joe and last year’s third Wave Rock.

There has not been an Irish-trained winner of the Paddy Power Gold Cup since Bright Highway back in 1980.

The best of the Irish entry looks to be the Christy Roche-trained Le Coudray, formerly a top-class staying hurdler, who made a successful transition to fences last season.

Michael O’Brien, trainer of Bright Highway, could be represented by Knife Edge.

Paddy Power ante-post prices: 6-1 It Takes Time, Poliantas, 9-1 Master Tern, 10-1 Fondmort, 12-1 Hand Inn Hand, Risk Accessor, Tarxien, Young Spartacus, 14-1 Cyfor Malta, Foly Pleasant, Isio, Le Coudray, 16-1 Brother Joe, Halexy, Horus, Dark’n Sharp, Exit Swinger, Iris Royal, Knife Edge, Midland Flame, Seebald, St Pirran, 20-1 Ballinclay King, Cameron Bridge.