Stage favourite's brought back (4)
I believe the answer is:
step
'stage' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'favourite's brought back' is the wordplay.
'favourite's' becomes 'pets' ('pet' can be a synonym of 'favourite').
'brought back' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'pets' written backwards gives 'STEP'.
(Other definitions for step that I've seen before include "Section of flight" , "Abrupt change; pace" , "'Stage, rung (4)'" , "Footprint" , "Single pace" .)