Dan Skelton stable visit including Shan Blue, Protektorat, Nube Negra, West Cork and Doctor Parnassus

Only a day on from my three-year-old son referring to a microwave as ‘the porridge machine’, ears understandably pricked on Monday morning when Dan Skelton uttered the words: "...with him, I just felt it could be a case of ‘add milk and stir’."

Not a rolled oat in sight on this occasion, however – nor was there any milk for that matter after an isolated power outage rendered the tea and coffee making facilities on the yard briefly redundant (to the assembled press, at least). But, otherwise, a first visit to the Lodge Hill stables in rural Warwickshire could hardly have been more impressive.

Things can obviously go wrong quickly at any racing yard, yet with first-class facilities and continued backing from major owners, combined with a rare kind of Olympic gold medal-winning drive coursing through the veins of the key players in the operation, it’s hard to envisage this team failing to achieve any objective it sets its mind to.

Just last April, Harry Skelton was crowned champion jockey after a sustained and calculated campaign to get him over the line ahead of Brian Hughes, and Dan Skelton will be champion jumps trainer in Britain one day. Whether that’s this season, next or in several years from now, there is an air of inevitability about the whole process – something the man himself partly puts down to one of the principal lessons learnt from his time as assistant trainer to current champion and the trainer whom Skelton is currently hoping to chase down in the 2021-22 title race, Paul Nicholls.

"The one thing that always stood out with Paul was the system. Having a system to feed your horses, having a system to train your horses, and always having a system whereby you recognise a particular horse’s set of assets, and then campaign them accordingly," he said.

"Systems are what allow us to train such a big number of horses. Each horse is an individual and you have to think about them individually, but if you have a good system then a lot of horses thrive in that system.

"We’ve got about 140 horses to run and then we’ve got three-year-olds, two-year-olds, and a stud now as well. It’s a massive operation and it’s got bigger and bigger."

Bigger doesn’t always mean better, of course, but Dan Skelton Racing – founded only nine years ago – is a rapidly-expanding beast on every conceivable level and there’s a strong belief the best days still lie ahead.

With three County Hurdles and one Mares’ Hurdle on the CV already, the onus is now on Skelton to take the next step on the biggest stage, and the decision to aim 148-rated Shan Blue at the Ryanair Chase over the Ultima Handicap Chase – meaning he’ll have a contender in all three of the major open-age Grade One chases at this year’s Cheltenham Festival – epitomises where Skelton wants to be, and is almost certainly heading.

All three blatantly have something in common too and, if you were beginning to think 'system' was something of a Skelton buzzword, how about six references to horses being 'fresh' in the full stable tour on these pages.

The trainer confidently explains the thinking behind effectively keeping his powder dry with his three big guns: "Of the Festival winners I’ve had, only one has run in the same calendar year and that was Roksana, who needed a run to get ready. The other three winners I’ve had at Cheltenham (Festival) never ran in the same calendar year. I think you have them prepared for it.

"They have to be fresh and the more you do this the more you realise that. It's a requirement because what's coming at Cheltenham is intense – so far beyond a normal race. You have to be so ready and, in those championship races, they turn it up. If you're not fresh and well and can't take that, it's over.

"The vast majority of horses must be fresh to do their very best. It's so hard to win at the Festival and if you don't go there fresh, I genuinely don't think you can win."

Shan Blue, Protektorat and Nube Negra aren’t alone in arriving on the back of an intended break, Boodles Juvenile Hurdle fancy Too Friendly prompting the proverbial glint in a trainer’s eye along with West Cork, winner of the Greatwood earlier in the campaign and excused a subsequent Ascot defeat in mid-December on account of "one of the worst over-reaches I’ve ever seen".

There is further depth to the squad courtesy of old yard favourites Spiritofthegames and Ch'tibello, the latter potentially in line for a crack at the Martin Pipe, while Nurse Susan and Ballygriffincottage are dark horses for the Mares' Novices' Hurdle and Albert Bartlett respectively. Langer Dan remains on course for another shot at Festival glory with confidence growing despite a low-key prep run and "it won't be an unexpected party" should Unexpected Party do the business in the Coral Cup.

As for the ready-made juvenile off the Flat to which Skelton hoped he need only apply the finishing touches (i.e. milk/stir), the compact, rather stocky Doctor Parnassus could hardly have taken more kindly to the workload thrown at him since joining from David O’Meara’s yard around the turn of the year.

Mad fresh he is not, having completed his hurdling double at Ascot and Taunton during the months of January and February, but it’s clear the half-brother to Metier has adapted well to the Skelton system.

Ted Walsh recently quipped on Racing TV that there won’t be a British-trained horse among the first 10 home in this year’s Triumph Hurdle. Well, having not yet gone cold on antepost Value Bet selection Porticello, and hardly been put off Knight Salute after his red-hot weekend performance in the Adonis, there was definitely something 'just right' about what Doctor Parnassus’ trainer was trying to convey regarding his chances in the race too.

Or perhaps I’ve just been eating a bit too much porridge?

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