Meetmebythesea Racehorse: JP McManus's Paddy Power Gold Cup Winner

Who is the Meetmebythesea racehorse?

The Meetmebythesea racehorse is a six-year-old Irish-bred gelding by the sire Watar, trained in England by Ben Pauling and owned by JP McManus. On Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, he won the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham as the 2/1 favourite, beating Blueking D'Oroux by 2½ lengths, with Torneo third.

So if you're asking who won the Paddy Power Gold Cup 2026, that's your answer. Harry Cobden rode him, and it was McManus's first win in a race he had tried to win many times.

One note on the price. Some early reports gave different odds, but the official result on Sporting Life and Racing Post's report both show a starting price of 2/1 favourite.

Only 10 ran. Five horses came out, four because of the quick ground and one with a temperature, and the going was officially good, good to firm in places. Our Paddy Power Gold Cup 2026 guide has the full story of the race and the weekend.

How the race was won

Meetmebythesea raced close to the pace behind the long-time leader Quebecois and took over three fences from home. Blueking D'Oroux, having his first run for trainer Dan Skelton, came to challenge and the two were level at the last.

The winner pecked on landing, which means his nose dipped toward the ground, but he recovered and pulled away up Cheltenham's hill. He carried 11st 10lb, and of the 10 runners only top weight Matata carried more.

Pauling said afterward that Cobden wanted to ride him forward, that the horse jumped brilliantly, and that he showed more than the stable had seen from him before. It was the horse's first run since March.

Meetmebythesea's record: seven wins from nine

He began in an Irish point-to-point, an amateur race over fences for young horses, where he finished second on his only start in March 2024. He then joined Pauling and went straight over hurdles, skipping the flat races for jumpers known as bumpers.

Sporting Life's race record shows nine runs under rules and seven wins.

Two things stand out:

• Both defeats have an explanation. Pauling said not everything fell into place at Sandown, and the Newbury run came on heavy ground. After the Festival he said plainly that the horse does not handle heavy going.
• He is two from two over fences at Cheltenham. He won the Jack Richards on March 12, 2026 by 4¾ lengths at 9/1 under Ben Jones, and came back eight months later to win over nearly the same course and distance.

What we couldn't confirm

He was already running in McManus's green and gold hoops for his hurdle wins in 2024-25. Irish Point-to-Point reported that he was sold privately to Pauling and McManus after his point-to-point at Monksgrange. We found no published sale price, so we're leaving that out.

The team: Ben Pauling, JP McManus and Harry Cobden

Ben Pauling, trainer. Pauling trains at Naunton, a short drive from Cheltenham racecourse. The Jockey Club counted the Jack Richards as his fifth Festival winner. He said on Saturday that this race inspired him growing up and that he has been going to the meeting since he was 14.

JP McManus, owner. The Irish owner has had the biggest string in jump racing for decades and has won most of its major prizes. This race was a gap on the list. He gave the credit to Pauling, saying the plan was the trainer's.

Harry Cobden, jockey. Cobden is 28 and was Britain's champion jump jockey in 2023-24. In May 2026 he became McManus's retained jockey in Britain and Ireland, which means he has first call on the owner's horses.

That is why the weekend matters for him. On Friday he won the Shloer Chase on Jonbon, his first race ride on that horse, and on Saturday he won the meeting's biggest handicap. Ben Jones, who rode Meetmebythesea in March, was not on board this time.

How a novice becomes a top handicapper

A novice chaser is, in general, a horse that had not won a chase before the end of the previous season. That covers horses still looking for a first win over the bigger fences as well as those who got it this season. Novice races let young jumpers learn against others at the same stage, and our guide to what a novice chase is covers the rules.

Once a horse has won a chase, the protection normally ends with that season. The exception is a first win in March or April, which keeps novice status until the end of November. Meetmebythesea first won over fences in November 2025, so his ended in the spring. Here is the path he took:

1. Learn the job. He won his first two runs over fences, a small novices' handicap at Wetherby and a novices' chase at Ayr.
2. Earn a higher rating. The British Horseracing Authority's handicappers give each horse an official rating from its results. One point equals about one pound of weight. He already had a rating from his hurdle runs when he went to Wetherby, and the handicappers reassess it after each run.
3. Win a novice handicap. The Jack Richards is a handicap only for novices, so he carried weight based on that rating and won easily.
4. Take on older horses. The Paddy Power Gold Cup is open to experienced chasers. Second-season horses like him often do well in it because they are still improving faster than their rating rises.

His rating shows how this works. Sporting Life reported in October that his mark had been revised to 151. Pauling skipped a spring race at Aintree, but he said horses that had finished behind Meetmebythesea came first and second there, so the rating went up 5lb without the horse leaving his stable.

What a rising mark means for his next races

A handicap win usually costs a horse something. The handicapper will reassess him after Saturday, and a 2½-length win over a strong field makes a rise likely. It isn't automatic: the rating goes up only if the handicapper judges that he ran better than his current mark.

A higher mark would change his options:

• Handicaps get harder. He carried 11st 10lb on Saturday. A higher rating means more weight against the same rivals. Whether he is top weight next time depends on who else runs, because the highest-rated horse in each handicap carries the most.
• Graded races open up. In Grade 1 races the weights come from the race conditions, not from ratings. Horses carry the same weight apart from fixed allowances, such as the one mares receive or one for age, so a higher rating no longer costs him pounds. The question becomes whether he is simply good enough.
• The gap is still real. Pauling said the horse may need to find another 10 to 15lb of improvement to win one of the big races.

Distance is the other question. Saturday's race was about 2½ miles. Pauling said he expects the horse to stay three miles, and said before the race that he is not slow, so there was no rush to go further.

Ground matters as well. His trainer says he can't handle heavy going, and both Cheltenham wins came on ground officially described as good in the main. If you want to understand why the surface divides trainers, read why racecourses water the track.

What to watch next

Nothing below is confirmed. These are the things to follow:

• His new rating. The handicapper's reassessment in the coming days will show how far he has to climb.
• The King George VI Chase, Kempton, Dec. 26. It's a Grade 1 over three miles. McManus said he could be a King George horse but noted he is only six, and Pauling said Kempton at Christmas has to be considered.
• The Cheltenham Gold Cup question. Asked about it, Pauling said he didn't know what he sees the horse as. Treat any Gold Cup talk as speculation until the trainer says otherwise.
• Entries and declarations. A horse is only a runner once he is declared, usually a few days before the race. Check the racecard, not the rumor.
• The weather. A wet December would count against him, on his trainer's own account.
• Jonbon. Cobden's other winner this weekend is due at Sandown for the Tingle Creek on Dec. 5.

New to jump racing? Look up terms like "handicap" and "going" in our glossary, or browse more stories in Horse Academy Trends.