Horse Racing tips: The best backed at Cheltenham's November meeting

*Odds quoted on the widget are Future Racing / Antepost prices which means that if your selection does not run in the race for whatever reason – you will lose your stake under traditional Antepost rules.

Paddy’s back as the headline sponsor at the three-day November Meeting at Cheltenham and punters haven’t been shy about getting stuck into some of the combatants.

French raider Easysland has been smashed into an odds-on from 11-8 in Friday’s Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase (3pm). It didn’t look great for David Cottin’s charge when he ran out at Pau in January of last year, the third time in a row that he had failed to complete in cross-country races, but since then he has become a master of this unique discipline winning seven in a row.

This septet of victories includes the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival last March, when he mastered dual Grand National hero and previous two-time winner of the same heat Tiger Roll, who looks likely to reoppose on Friday, by an amazing 17 lengths.

That last success made his record at Prestbury Park two from two as he also landed another cross country handicap chase here last December. This could be his hardest task yet as he won that off a mark of 139 and his Festival win was off level weights and he’s now up to 167, but he’s certainly been backed to overcome the burden.

Nicky Henderson’s Mister Fisher is the best-backed horse in Saturday’s Paddy Power Gold Cup (2.15pm) and the six-year-old is now half the odds he opened at in the Future Racing markets.

The Seven Barrows sorcerer scooped this contest with Fondmort under Paddy Power News blogger and former top pilot Mick Fitzgerald in 2003 and there’s a lot to like about Mister Fisher who won two of his four novice starts last season including a Grade 2 at Doncaster in January, when he was a length too powerful for fellow Paddy Power entry Al Dancer.

He was fourth on his last start in the Marsh Novices’ Chase at The Festival and that wasn’t a bad effort as he was only four and a quarter lengths adrift of Samcro and the two other horses in front of him were Melon and the mighty Faugheen.

A Grade 2 winner over hurdles also, if he was to win on Saturday carrying 11st 9lb, you could see him vying for Ryanair Chase honours next March at the Festival.

The other possible Paddy Power combatant for money is last year’s heroine Happy Diva who has also halved in price, and enjoyed an encouraging enough pipe-opener at Wetherby last month.

Kerry Lee’s charge was involved in a marvellous tussle with Brelan D’As in last year’s renewal, getting the better of that rival by a wafer-thin neck, and was later runner-up to another Paddy Power Gold Cup contender, Simply The Betts, in the Brown Advisory at the Cheltenham Festival.

Sunday’s Greatwood Hurdle (3pm) can sometimes unearth a Champion Hurdle prospect and while Warwickshire wizard Olly Murphy’s Hunters Call is currently some way below that level, some backers clearly think he’s pretty good having been as big as 33-1 in opening exchanges.

Murphy has done an excellent job since his transfer from John Neilan in 2017, with his new trainer produced him to win a Grade 3 handicap hurdle at Ascot at the first time of asking.

He’s clearly had his problems as he was then off games for 921 days before returning with a vengeance to readily win a lower grade handicap hurdle at Southwell by four and three-quarter lengths in July.

Connections then had a tilt at the highly-prestigious Galway Hurdle later that month, leading for a long way before being overhauled at the last, but still mustering a creditable fourth behind Aramon.

If he can reproduce that Ballybrit form, he’ll be on the premises as the cash predicts, in Sunday’s feature.