PAUL NICHOLLS thinks Mon Parrain will have to improve if he is to end the champion trainer’s Paddy Power Gold Cup hoodoo at Cheltenham on Saturday.

The five-year-old, who was second in the Topham Chase at Aintree in April, is currently the 8-1 favourite with the sponsors for Saturday’s big handicap chase at Prestbury Park. But the French import has only had two runs over fences in this country.

Nicholls was delighted with Mon Parrain’s work alongside Kauto Star and Big Buck’s at Exeter last Tuesday and said: “He worked great at Exeter – I had been struggling to get him as fit as I would have liked, so that’s why we took him there and he worked nicely.

“He’s going to have to improve to win off 152. He’s been a bit of a hype horse. He won so well when thrown in at the weights at Sandown. Then he did run well at Aintree, although he has gone up a few pounds for getting beat. I’ve not won the race before as generally mine are not well handicapped. It’s going to be hard to win, but he doesn’t know he’s favourite.”

Nicholls has two other among the 32 entries with five-year-old Aerial and top-weight Poquelin, who finished fifth in the race last year. All the leading fancies stood their ground including the Philip Hobbs-trained Wishfull Thinking, Ferdy Murphy’s Divers, David Pipe’s Great Endeavour, David Bridgwater’s The Giant Bolster and Nicky Richards’ Noble Alan.