Graham Clark paid a visit to Dan Skelton to get the pre-season views of arguably the most upwardly-mobile trainer in Britain.
Dan Skelton had to make do with second best in the National Hunt Trainers’ Championship last season, but his dreams of winning the coveted title could become reality this campaign.
A solid summer has seen the Shelfield Green handler bank more than £500,000 in prize money to put himself in pole position ahead of the season ramping up a gear.
With all four of his Cheltenham Festival winners from last season back among his ranks Skelton looks well equipped to take aim at many of the sport's biggest prizes once again.
Added to that an exciting crop of novice hurdles and novice chasers, it all bodes well for Skelton to serve up another big challenge to both reigning champion Willie Mullins and his old boss, and 14 times winner of the title, Paul Nicholls.
Skelton said: “Last season was brilliant. It is hard to get beat when you get so close, but we will try and do better this year as we want to be at that end of the table.
“Protektorat winning the Ryanair was brilliant as we changed everything. I thought that was a great team result. If we didn’t change things we might lose the fact we have this Grade One horse. There was no fluke in his performance.
“Langer Dan winning his second Coral Cup was brilliant and I’ll never forget being involved in that finish at Aintree when we didn't win.
"We also had a brilliant day at Warwick where we won nearly everything apart from Galia Des Liteaux just being beaten in the Classic Chase and days like that are magical and hopefully we will have a few more this year with the team we have got.”
Chasers
“He ran well to finish third on his first start over fences, but he charges at his fences a bit and he just needs to learn how to be a bit more respectful of them and once he does it will all come together for him. He needs to get some experience as he isn’t clockwork, but he has got a big engine.
“He didn’t win the EBF Final at Sandown last season, but things like big fields and what have you he has still got to get used to. There is a lot to come, he just doesn’t know how to be a professional as he has the ability."
“It happened a bit quick for him turning in at Market Rasen in the Summer Plate, then at Chepstow he ran very well against some good horses in the Listed race that Unexpected Party won last year.
“We will run him in nice novice chases and something like the Rising Stars at Wincanton could be for him. He does want better ground though and a faster-run race would suit him better.
“Two and a half miles is very much his scene. If we can get back to the way he won at Warwick over fences we will have another win out of him.”
“We are going to go chasing with her this season after her fantastic third in the Grade One Sefton Novices’ Hurdle up at Aintree last season.
“She loves a bit of soft ground and she could be one to go to Bangor for that Listed mares’ novices’ chase.
“We will keep the book open with her, but I’m very happy with her and she should make her mark. We will go where the races are with her. We have high hopes with her tackling fences this season.”
“She jumped brilliantly on her debut over fences at Worcester and I loved what I saw. It was a good race and she was beaten by a useful horse of Stuart Edmunds.
“She likes a bit of soft ground and she will be doing us well. I think she is up to winning a Listed race as it is a big effort for mares to jump as well as she does.”
“He is a good horse, but he has been fragile. He had a little bone issue, but that is all corrected.
“The plan is to start him over fences at Exeter on November 8 in a £40,000 novices’ chase. He won at the meeting last year and then won the Grade Two Winter Novices’ Hurdle at Sandown. He is a very tough horse that loves soft ground. He is all stamina this horse.
“He might just sharpen up for everything at Exeter as he has been off the track for a while, but I think enough of him to start him there.
“If all goes well you could look at going to Sandown a month later for the Grade Two Esher Novices’ Chase and then on to Warwick to the race Grey Dawning won last season.
“He doesn’t jump off the page as a Kauto Star Novices’ Chase horse as I think he is more about stamina.”
“The plan is to go for the Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter. I think the track at Exeter will be perfect for him. I can not tell you why he ran how he did at Aintree as the rest of the season had been seamless, but that sometimes happens in racing.
“If you win a Haldon Gold Cup you would be tempted to give the Tingle Creek a go as Jonbon is likely to scare off most horses.
“It is either that or you leave him and go for the Desert Orchid at Kempton, which is a limited handicap and that might suit him well, but we will cross that bridge after Exeter.”
“He is in good form, but he will take a bit of warming up this year with his older bones and I’m not sure he is as well handicapped as he could be.
“He is obviously very good around Ascot and Kempton so that is where we will be going with him. He has been a good horse for the yard.
“He will have needed his run at Chepstow over a trip that was on the short side and I don’t think we are done winning with him yet."
“She will go to Carlisle for the Listed Houghton Mares’ Chase on November 3. She will then go to Market Rasen for the Listed Bud Booth Mares’ Chase at the end of November, which she won last year, and then she will go for the Welsh National as that is her game.
“Those two races before the Welsh National, having last been over the Grand National fences, will be ideal. She had a great season last term and we nearly pulled off winning the Classic Chase at Warwick which would have been a big one. We were giving a lot of weight to the winner that day, but it was a great run.
"She ran a great race in the Grand National, but she just lacked that gear from the second last to the line.
“There is lots more to be done with her as she is a tough mare and loves soft ground. I wouldn’t have thought Aintree will be on the agenda this season.”
“I’m delighted with him and he has had a great summer. He looks brilliant and the plan is to go to the Charlie Hall Chase and then on to the Betfair Chase.
“He got beat in both his first novice hurdle and first novice chase and in both seasons he didn’t get beaten much afterwards.
“I think we can afford to have him a little bit short for his first run, but the stakes have risen and he has to rise as well. He won’t be going there unfit, but there will be a bit to work on for the Betfair Chase.
“We would love to see him develop into a Gold Cup horse as the season goes on. Like the season we won the Betfair Chase with Protektorat, we gave him a shot at the Gold Cup and that would be the thing for this lad.
“He could come out of the Betfair Chase and not be good enough or 15 lengths superior, and you could then run him in a King George, but only time will tell.
“I'm not convinced at the moment that the King George is the most important race in the calendar. The only race that got away from last was the day he jumped on two out at Cheltenham and Ginny’s Destiny beat us, but I was quite happy to give that up for the win at the Festival.
“Every year you get one or two out of your bumper horses you think could make it at this level and thankfully he has."
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“He has been sent to us by the Megsons and would be the main one people know. He is a bit of a rascal with his race record, but the plan is to send him to Ascot early next month for a £100,000 handicap chase over two miles.
“I think he could go up in trip, but we will stick to two miles for the moment. When they have their quirks you have just got to look after them and have them confident and make them feel as good as they can."
“He did very well last season and I think he could take the next step up the chasing ladder. I was so frustrated when he got beat at Kempton, but then I ran him seven days later and he won the Greatwood Gold Cup at Newbury.
“It was a better track for him and slower ground that day, which he wants. We always thought he would improve a lot.
“He is likely to go to Wetherby for a handicap chase a week on Friday before going back to Newbury for a valuable two-and-a-half mile handicap chase on the Friday of the Coral Gold Cup Weekend. Unless it is bottomless the Paddy Power won’t suit him. For him to run in that it needs to be an attritional race."
“He started life over fences off a reasonable mark at Uttoxeter and he ran well. He just got in under the second-last and the last.
“He just over-reached on landing after the last and gave the other horse the advantage during the closing stages. He will improve a bit for the run but he jumped well before two out where he then just got tired. He will win his share of races."
“We have been waiting to go over fences for two years with this one. He had good runs at Newbury in the Betfair Hurdle and in the County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and actually it wasn’t a bad run at Ayr, but that track doesn’t really suit him.
“The more galloping tracks are better for him. I think he should go quite a long way over fences. We have never over raced him at all. There is plenty of room for miles on the clock.
“If all goes well with him then the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown will be the big early-season target as the test there would be perfect for him.”
“It didn’t happen for him at all last season. I started him off over hurdles as he had surgery on his knee. He half drew us in thinking he could win one then he went chasing later on.
“In hindsight looking at how he is now I just felt he was still getting over that operation as he is a different horse now.
“He could go to Cheltenham on Friday for a three mile handicap chase worth £100,000. We just need to get that first race out of the way.
“He is eligible for races like the Badger Beer at Wincanton, Coral Gold Cup at Newbury and the Coral Trophy at Kempton Park. He will win another big one at some point."
“We’ve not seen him since he fell in the Coral Gold Cup last year and I don’t see any reason to deviate from going back there again this year.
“We had him in good form for it last season, but these things happen, however we will try and have him in equally good form this year.
“The plan is to go to Wetherby on November 1st for a Listed handicap chase there first. I know he has picked up another year without doing too much racing, but he looks brilliant and there are still good seasons to be had with him.
“He could be a Grand National type. I can’t pick my Grand National horse right now, but they soon become obvious and he could fit the bill.”
“We will start at Aintree in the Old Roan Chase then build his season around all the good two-and-a-half mile graded races and possibly dip into some over three miles.
“It is a case of working back from the defence of the Ryanair Chase. We will ply our trade and just run him a bit.
“We have never really gone right handed with him since he had a disaster at Wincanton one day, but he will get an entry in the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day.
"We don’t need to be turning up over three miles asking him to stay the trip that doesn’t necessarily suit him as much as a shorter one.
“We need to see how going right handed goes as you have the Peterborough Chase, the Silviniaco Conti after Christmas and the Ascot Chase.
“I don’t think it is a problem, but after what happened at Wincanton I had opportunities to avoid it, and I did.
"I can imagine him going to Aintree, then to the Grade Two 1965 Chase at Ascot, and afterwards we can look at the Peterborough Chase at Huntingdon, the race at Windsor, the Ascot Chase then Cheltenham. He is tough and can do it."
“His last two efforts were much improved, but then we were getting him ready for the Ultima at the Cheltenham Festival and unfortunately he picked up an injury which kept him off.
“He is eligible for the veterans' races this season and the plan is to go to Aintree at the end of the month for a qualifier up there.
“I’m not going to put all his eggs into the final as it has been a while since he has won so we want to go and have a bit of fun with him. I’m not suggesting he is like what he was when he should have won the Charlie Hall, but he has still got it."
“The result at the Cheltenham Festival makes the win look a more executed plan than it was. We fancied him the year before, but he never got in. We spent a bit of time knocking around against good novices over two and a half miles, but he didn’t stay.
“It all just fell into place for him at Cheltenham, especially after missing out the year before, and it was great to give the owners a big day.
“We will try and work our way back to the Grand Annual this season. We will try and have him ready early like we did last year. There is an argument that someone has got to follow Jonbon around for all this prizemoney and as he is rated 146 now, he could do that."
“We kept her over hurdles last season as we thought we could win a Long Walk Hurdle with her, but that backfired dramatically on the day. The second she jumped off that day she was keen and once that happened we knew we couldn’t win that day with her.
“She has been good since switching to fences at home and she appears to love them.
“She ran nicely at Worcester on her chase debut until three out. She took a massive blow and then made a few mistakes on the way home once she got tired.
“I was very happy with her jumping until her mistake and it doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm for the season she should have over fences. She could be one for the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton."
Hurdlers
“It all came together in the spring and he won his bumper. I always felt like when he got on better ground he would find an extra gear, and he did. He jumps nicely, if a little big.
“He will improve as the season progresses and I don’t think he was the slickest jumper the first time out at Uttoxeter. We have done loads with him at home, but he just needs more match practice as his jumping needs to improve.
“There is a good bucket of talent there and he should be able to win more than his fair share. He might just turn up in spring as that is what he did last season.”
“He is a maiden that has joined us from France. He finished second on his debut for us at Chepstow where he was beaten less than a length.
“He just had a blow coming down to the last and he jumped it a bit big and gave the advantage away. He should be able to go and win a maiden next time and build from there.”
“He might well go straight to the Greatwood Hurdle. He didn’t win after Newbury, but he put in some solid efforts and was beaten only a length, or under in each of his three starts after that win.
“His form of his last win has recently been boosted by Court In The Act coming out and winning well at Market Rasen the other day.
“He is rated 128 and there is plenty of room in that as I do think he is a good horse that can go well this season for us.”
“He is very progressive, but he was an absolute nightmare as a youngster. He fly-leapt everywhere, but he has learnt how to be professional about it all.
“He improved plenty for the switch to handicap hurdles last season and hopefully we can look at some fancy races off lower marks.
“They don’t stay well handicapped forever, but I’m very happy with him and he has got room to improve again.”
“He is a good horse with lots of power. He goes through a race very well and I wouldn’t be stepping him up in trip in a hurry.
“He will start over two miles and we might head to Exeter with him in early November. The track would suit him around there.
“He quickened up well and put the race to bed well at Huntingdon. I don’t know what the race was like, but he could only do what he did.”
“I like him, but he is a proper little rascal. He has always got a fiver up his sleeve. He just knows how to win.
“It was a great first run to finish second in the Silver Trophy at Chepstow on his comeback. He simply got out pointed by one from Nigel Twiston-Davies yard that was very ready.
“His tactical nous through a race isn’t there yet. He doesn’t jump onto the bridle and go and that might just catch him out in a big race until he learns to do that.
“His finishing effort is very good though and I think we will look to step him up in trip at some point. He should be one to follow.”
“He will be back around Christmas time as he picked up an injury when he got chinned in the Imperial Cup which was heartbreaking for the old boy. He has been brilliant for the yard who has been so consistent.
“He was our 1000th winner and he has won at the Cheltenham Festival. He is not clockwork, and he is a bit of a monkey, but he will find his day.”
“He is a very fragile horse, but you could see him improve a lot on what he has done. He wants to go over a fence pretty soon as he is a big scopey horse, but he has little experience so he might have another run over hurdles. He has plenty of ability.”
“He is a remarkable horse. He came to us and as the owners live in Shropshire I said I’ll go to Bangor as it was not far for them to go. I had another horse in the race and Gwennie May Boy beat him so I thought we have got to take him a bit seriously now.
“I thought West Balboa would beat him at Aintree but she didn’t. Was he thriving, and we just got him at the right time, I don’t know.
“At home he goes about his business in a very unassuming way. He is a lovely horse with a great nature. When he comes to the track he is brilliant and I do not know how good he could be.
“The valuable three mile handicap hurdle at Haydock in November is very much on the agenda. I’d love to be in a position to go in open graded races with him.”
“She is a very different mare to Let It Rain. Whereas she has a bit of boot this one is all about stamina. She won on debut for us in a Listed race at Sandown on soft ground, and Harry (Skelton) had to drop down into her after a mile and shake her up.
“I think you didn’t see her at her best at Aintree as they was too much emphasis on speed and she is all about stamina.
“We will play to her strengths and look at races over two and a half miles on slow ground and work our way up to three miles. The Jane Seymour Mares’ Novices' Hurdle at Sandown could be the type of race for her later on. She could even be an Albert Bartlett horse.”
“He is a really nice maiden from last year. He would want the ground proper soft so hopefully it will be going that way soon. He will improve all season, but he will undoubtedly be better when he sees a fence.
“He will start at two miles, but we will be going up in trip pretty quickly with him as he will get further.”
“He is another second season novice which hopefully he will put to good use. Unfortunately he got no further than the first when he fell in the Persian War at Chepstow.
“We will lower his sights on his next start and try to get his head in front, but hopefully he can work his way up through the ranks.”
“She had a great spring, winning up at Aintree. She likes a bit of okay ground and I started her on bad ground at Wetherby last season, and she got beat, but I didn’t have anywhere else to run.
“I then ran her at Kempton and it rained the day before and she got beat. I then just put her away as it wasn’t happening at all. She then had one run before going to Aintree and winning.
“She has loads of ability and has been second in a Grade One, but you have just got to have everything right for her and when she is on nice ground she is very good.
“She could start off at Wetherby and then I think she will probably go to Ascot for the Coral Hurdle then we will see where the ground is then really.
“If it comes right in the spring the Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival would be on the agenda, as would Aintree.”
“He is a new horse to us. He has some form from Auteuil next to his name, but I don’t think it is the strongest form on offer.
“He is a novice hurdler until December 1 and we intend to make full use of that. He could go to Cheltenham on Friday as he is entered up in the Grade Two and the ordinary novices’ hurdle or we might go to the Charlie Hall meeting at Wetherby.
“We would then find one more race for him at the end of November and then have a think of what route to take.”
“We have just got to go full graded races with him now. I do have concerns about how he behaves in the autumn and the winter because historically he hasn’t been as good.
“He bled the run before Cheltenham last season and he has never done that before. He just gets a lot easier in the spring, but he is going to have to come around to a different way of thinking.
“We are going to go for the West Yorkshire Hurdle and we will see how that goes. We could then go on to Newbury for the Long Distance Hurdle then the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot.
“If he acquitted himself well in those three then he would have to be a Stayers’ Hurdle horse and that is the route we will hopefully go down this year.
“If he ends up running in a Coral Cup again it will be off top weight, but you would have serious concerns about that as he is not the biggest.
“Unless the first three runs are absolutely diabolical we want to have a go at the Stayers’ Hurdle.
“He is now rated 160 and there is nothing to suggest he won’t continue running well as he showed improved form at the back end of the year at Aintree and Sandown.”
“She is very good. She won very well at Ascot, but then she just picked a little set back which meant we couldn’t go for spring targets, but maybe it was nature’s way of saying leave me until next season.
“I’m delighted with her at the moment and she has got it all ahead of her. How good she could be God knows, but she has got a lot to like about her.
“In my mind she is as good as any of those good mares that we have had. If we got to that point we would be more than happy to take on the boys over hurdles.”
“He got on a right roll last season. He loves soft ground, but he was just very well handicapped.
“He came to us after having two runs over hurdles and I gave him a run at Bangor over two miles and Harry got off saying this one wants three miles, so after another run at two miles at Exeter we then went up in trip and up he went in the handicap.
“I don’t think we have reached our limit with him, and we can go over fences when it is appropriate with him. There is a bit to come. He could be a player in something like that valuable three-mile handicap hurdle at Haydock on Betfair Chase day."
“We switched him back to hurdles for the Welsh Champion Hurdle where he finished mid-division. The ground has got to be very soft if we run him over fences, but we might mix and match with him.
“He did very well last year, and yes we didn’t land one of those graded races, but he is older and stronger so hopefully he can land a decent one this season.
"I don’t just think he is only a hurdler and when you get to that new Windsor meeting he is likely to be seen over fences as it will be really soft ground. There is still plenty of mileage in him.”
“I like this horse and I think the penny will drop slowly with him. He doesn’t appear to be a precocious animal. I wouldn’t say he out ran expectations at Sandown, but it was a very good run in a very good race for a horse that we didn’t have the greatest expectations on the day.
"He is obviously going to make into a chaser as he is nearly 17 hands. We are happy with how he is going and we are not putting him under pressure."
“I always say to his owner Darren Yates that I can not predict this horse, but that is not because he is ungenuine.
“He absolutely bolted in at Haydock then the next day he pulled up. Whether that was down to a bit of youth and finding it hard to be consistent time will tell.
“I would like to see him be a bit more consistent anyway, but I can live with them being unpredictable if they are good. I’m willing to work with him and a race like the Lanzarote Hurdle could be his cup of tea.”
“I didn’t really know what to expect the first day he ran. I thought he would run well, but I didn’t think he was a certainty.
“We then went to Newbury for the Listed race and the similar comments applied and he went and won again. He gets there very easily and obviously has a very big engine.
“He was first of the English runners home in the Champion Bumper and I was happy for him to take his chance there. At the end of the day he had a bit of racing under his belt and you hope one day he will go back there for a jumps race and that he would have a chance.
“I was delighted with how he travelled and picked up at Cheltenham. Although there were a few better than him on the day, hopefully we can be better than them when we go hurdling.
“Whether he will be a Formby Novices’ Hurdle type we will let him tell us, but you would like to have an aspiration that he is up to that sort of level."
“He won at Market Rasen where he quickened up well. The form has been boosted and I like him a lot. He jumps well and has a great attitude.
"He probably won’t start until the Charlie Hall meeting at Wetherby. He could be a Challow Hurdle horse, but we have just got to let him creep up the ladder in those first couple of runs and hopefully he can do that."
“The idea was to run this horse in the Persian War, but he got a little problem in August so we had to back off for a couple of weeks. He got a thing called Choke when the food goes down the windpipe.
“It just knocked him back a bit but the plan is to go to the Grade Two novices’ hurdle at the first Cheltenham meeting. As we weren’t hard on him last season we still had a fairly full tank in May so we decided to give him a bit of experience over hurdles which he made the most of.”
Bumpers Horses
KEOPS DES BORDES
“He won an Irish point-to-point beating another horse that we got called Fortune De Mer. He is about 16’ 2hh and is a proper horse.
“He wants time and will only run in a couple of bumpers this season, but he is a real animal for the future.”
KYKOROCK
“He won his English point-to-point and is another big strong scopey horse, but he didn’t flash up straight away when he came into the yard in July.
“He took a little bit of time to get settled in, but he is thriving now. He will run in a bumper in November.”
“Moneygarrow won his Irish point-to-point. He will spend a season in bumpers and made the perfect start when winning at Chepstow. I won’t be in any rush with him. I think he is well above average.”
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