Grey Dawning in King George frame following second in Betfair Chase at Haydock

Dan Skelton's seven-year-old, an impressive winner of the Turners Novices' Chase at Cheltenham in March, was sent off the 15/8 market leader on his first run outside of novice company but was beaten two lengths by Royale Pagaille who went back-to-back in the first domestic Grade 1 of the campaign at Haydock Park.

Grey Dawning made a mistake at the final fence and looked to finish a tired horse but, speaking on Wednesday's Nick Luck Daily Podcast, Skelton revealed that he was pleasantly surprised by how well the horse had taken those exertions and that Kempton on Boxing Day was definitely an option that connections were going to consider closely.

He said: "I left him in the race, him and Protektorat, because the picture is not that clear is it and I'm not just talking about the competition as you can only run your horse if your horse is really well. But I don't think it's that clear for us at home at the moment.

"He's come out of the race so much better than we ever thought he would. Which is why we've left him in the race and we'll just see how the next 10 days or so go before we start considering it strongly, if it's appropriate to do so. We thought we'd better give ourselves the option.

"Immediately after Haydock I felt he wouldn't be ready in time, I'm just surprised that he is. We'd love to run him, we'll do our best to run what we can. There's £250,000 in prize money and I won't be leaving that uncontested unless it's vital that I don't.

"You'd love to have him on slightly better ground than it was on Saturday and you'd presume that will be the case at Kempton. So there's lots of ticks, but what comes first is the horse and we'll only have him there if we're sure that it's the right thing.

"Protektorat could be an interesting one, I wanted to go to the Peterborough (Chase, December 8) with him and I'm not abandoning that thought now."

Grey Dawning is 6/1 with sponsors Ladbrokes but can be backed at 8/1 with several other firms including Paddy Power and Betfair Sportsbook. Stablemate Protektorat can be backed at 20/1, while the market is topped by the Emmet Mullins-trained Corbetts Cross who is a general 5/1 chance.

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