THE BHA handicapper was as impressed as we all were with Stage Star’s victory at the weekend in Cheltenham.

Bred in Ireland by Ruxley Holdings, Stage Star put in a career best performance to land the Grade 3 Paddy Power Gold Cup, even though he is already a dual Grade 1 winner, landing Newbury’s Challow Novices’ Hurdle and, in March, the Turner Novices’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. At the start of his career the seven-year-old gelding was a listed bumper winner at Ascot.