When it comes to consistency on the biggest stages few could match the levels of trainer Dan Skelton last season. With some exciting new recruits and some notable names back among his ranks the 2023/24 Jump campaign promises to be even better.
Big wins for Protektorat in the Betfair Chase at Haydock Park, Le Milos in the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury and Ashtown Lad in the Boylesports Becher Chase at Aintree, ensured the run up to Christmas was a memorable one for the Alcester handler and his team.
Added to that, two winners at the Cheltenham Festival courtesy of Langer Dan in the Coral Cup, and Faivoir in the McCoy Contractors County Handicap Hurdle, helped see Skelton set a new personal best prize money total exceeding £2.6 million come the end of the season.
Not one to rest on his laurels Skelton is already looking forward to another success laden campaign with another exciting team at his disposal.
He said: “I was happy with what we achieved last season. We had a pretty outstanding run throughout November and December and it carried on into the new year and they all ran up to their best I feel.
“We had two winners at the Cheltenham Festival and two up at Aintree and that was very important.
“They maintained their form throughout the season which was important. I was very happy with things but you do have to keep going.
“However, the team we have this season looks more than capable of helping us enjoy some more big days.”
HORSE-BY-HORSE GUIDE
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“We will be going to Haydock Park fresh and ready for the Betfair Chase. From what I’ve seen, he has not gone backwards in any way. The way we will have him ready for that race is that we will have him properly ready. I think it will take a good one on the day to beat him.
“He will have an entry in the King George at Kempton and we will look at that. We will have to look sensibly at the Gold Cup as we have had two goes at it and it hasn’t happened yet, but we will worry about the spring when we get to it.
“Anything is possible at this point and what happens before March will dictate whether he should be there or not.
“If all of a sudden he found 10lbs of improvement then you would have to have another go at the Gold Cup.
“But if the opposition have perfect seasons you might think you are better doing something else. We will do what is right for the horse.”
“He is back now and I’m delighted with how he looks. I’d like to try and start him off in the Old Roan. That would be the perfect scenario. It was a shame he missed last season as you don’t want to be missing one of your stars.
“Every time he has stood up over obstacles he is unbeaten. He was improving until his problems, and we would like to pick up from where he left off. If we can go to the Old Roan on really nice ground that will give him the opportunity to step forward.
“He will have an entry in the Paddy Power Gold Cup. Richard and Lizzie Kelvin-Hughes who own him are mad keen to get him to the King George on Boxing Day so we are trying to work him towards that.
“He looks fantastic and is behaving beautifully. He is doing all the work you want him to. I don’t harbour any concerns about that.
“He has as much ability as any horse I’ve had, and you have to take that seriously."
“I walked away from the Grand National and said we won’t do that again as he didn’t stay. However, he had a bit of an excuse as through the summer we took a chip out of his knee. I do think perhaps that wasn’t him at his best.
“We will work at getting him ready and once we are super happy with him we will run him which will be around Christmas time. There is a nice race at Ascot before Christmas and he could go there.
“I’ve yet to revisit the idea of running him in the Grand National with the owners and the last conversation I had with them was we won’t be doing it again. but in light of there being something that was in play, it might be something we do talk about again.
“Nothing is off the table. Take nothing away from him as he won a Coral Gold Cup last season and they are not easy to win. We are very proud of him, and I can assure you he is not finished.”
“Make no mistakes - he is a good horse that is improving. I think he is a horse that ultimately does have plenty to come.
“We will possibly go to Aintree for the Old Roan or Wetherby for a two and a half mile handicap on route to the Coral Gold Cup. We will see what the outcome of that is and then make a decision which way we go.
“The Coral Gold Cup is the big one for him. He was good at Aintree and he improved for that step up in trip, which he was entitled to do. We will start him over two and a half though, then give him the opportunity to go back up in trip at Newbury."
“Basically, all roads lead back to the Becher Chase. He will run at Bangor first in the race Le Milos won last year. He loves those Grand National fences.
“He wasn’t quick enough for the Topham in the springtime and we accept that. We were very unsure about the trip and the whole Grand National experience for him last season.
“I think we have got a horse that didn’t have a particularly gruelling season last season who can hopefully go and get some business done and win that Becher Chase again.
“The evidence beforehand will suggest whether it is possibly or not for him to go for the Grand National.
“I suppose if you win a second Becher you have to go for the Grand National as you would allow yourself to get led down that route. What we are concentrating on is the Becher.”
“She had a great season. She only run three times, but she won the Lanzarote at Kempton and a big handicap up at Aintree.
“She is still not badly handicapped in all honesty. She might go for the West Yorkshire Hurdle up at Wetherby or she might go for two and a half mile conditions race at Aintree the week after, and if we go that route then we would look to step her up in trip afterwards.
“She would then probably go to Kempton for the Listed mares’ hurdle there at the end of November.
“We would like to hope that she could be another Roksana, but the proof will be in the pudding. I wouldn’t say she is a million miles off it.”
“He will go straight to the Shloer Chase at Cheltenham. He is so good first time out but then he becomes not so easy to get to his best.
“What he does he puts a phenomenal amount of effort into his training and then into his racing, whether he is winning on the bridle or having to dig deep.
“The best way to describe what happens is that he has a massive come down after the race. It is a bit frustrating, but what he does is he achieves results at a very high level.
“There are a lot of things you change with other horses, but he is one that puts so much in. I’d love to be able to go out there and tell him don’t try quite so hard at home, save a bit more for the track, but that is not him.”
“She is a really good mare, and loves her fences. We were very proud of her last season. When she won those races she looked really good. I was really happy with everything I saw.
“Her runs at Cheltenham and Aintree were in highly competitive races on ground that probably wasn’t soft enough.
“You get her on that really slow ground and she might be able to win an even bigger race, but she is winning Grade Two races.
“She will start off in a Listed mares’ chase on November 16th. She will go there, and she will be hard to beat.
“You could always stick to mares’ races for her and work your way towards the mares’ chase at Cheltenham, but that doesn’t mean I won’t give her an entry in a few other races.”
“What a boy he is. It was a great effort in the Coral Cup and we are very proud of him. He is a very straightforward horse and when you get him going he is brilliant.
“People must think we are messing around in the autumn. I just can’t get him to operate, but once you get past Christmas he just starts to get going and he hits top gear in the spring.
“You just have to go down the handicap route because he is not effective in the autumn and winter to see if he could be an open company horse he won’t operate in them.
“To my mind he is a little rascal. After the Coral Cup he sustained an unusual injury which I’ve never heard of before which was to do with a set of connected tissue behind his fetlock.
“He had to have a little bit of surgery, but he is fine now. I’d imagine it will be the back end of November before he is ready to go.”
“He has loads of talent. We thought we could win the Morebattle with him at Kelso last season, but he ran absolutely awful in the Betfair Hurdle on unusually quick ground for February.
“However, he loved what went on in the County Hurdle with that hustle and bustle on a bit slower ground and he just flew home. You have to work with him, and you can’t force him. If you start trying to force him you will end up in a pickle as he won’t react to it.
“We will look at those good handicap hurdles with him as he is rated 139. He will find himself his spots to win as he always does.”
“It was very frustrating that he fell at Aintree as I think he might have nearly won, but it was a long way out. I think he will very quickly make amends for that fall.
“I think we might start him over three miles at Wetherby on November 3rd and go from there. I’m really happy with him and hopefully he can make into a spring festival horse.
“I would be looking at the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day as a first half of the season target.
“It was a tenacious display at Warwick in the Grade Two. He needed the run first time out at Aintree and he improved a great deal for it and he was always going to. I think he is possibly the most exciting novice chaser we’ve got.”
💪 Time for a school - the winner of five of his seven races to date, here's 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙮 𝘿𝙖𝙬𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 putting in the work on the gallops for @DSkeltonRacing! pic.twitter.com/F3HIkBr9Dg
— Sporting Life Racing (@SportingLife) October 8, 2023
“He belly-flopped two out in the County Hurdle which was disappointing, but he was a novice in a handicap and he has much to learn. I hope the fact he has been doing all that means that he has learnt.
“We can go chasing with him now and hopefully make him into something a bit unusual. He is very much a two-miler as he has got loads of pace.
“He was just outstayed at Cheltenham over two and a half miles on trials day by a horse that stays well. It was an acceptable first year with significant room for improvement.
“We have also given him a wind op since the end of last season. I’d like to think he will be running in graded races over fences.”
“He has the bonus of being a second season novice. It was a bit frustrating that he didn’t get his head in front last time, but he ran in all those big races last season and did plenty of racing.
“I think we will possibly go down the Paddy Power Gold Cup route with him. He will start off at Chepstow in the Listed novices’ chase.
“He can have an entry in the Paddy Power after that, he could also have an entry in the two-mile Grade Two novice chase at Cheltenham at the same meeting if the ground is a bit slower, and he can also be considered for the Rising Stars at Wincanton the week before.”
“I think Nurse Susan could be as good as any of the other novice chasers we have.
“She has always been a chaser and she ran some good races over hurdles not least behind Harry Fry’s good mare Love Envoi a couple of times. I just think she has got the lot.
“She has got the size and scope, she is brave and she relaxes in her races. She likes soft ground. She has just got the lot. The plan is to run her in the race Listed race that Galia Des Liteaux won at Bangor last year on November 15th.”
“It was probably trainer error running him at Cheltenham last time when he fell. Good ground around Cheltenham probably wasn’t what he wanted. He will go three miles in time but I think he is one for those intermediate trips for now.
“I could see him being one for the Coral Gold Cup next season for us, but I’m not sure he is that horse this season. I think he wants to be going to Newbury for the two-day meeting there in November where he has a couple of options.”
“She is a very good horse, but she has taken me by surprise if I’m totally honest. When we first got her I thought she was bang average and I wasn’t sure about her at all.
“Harry (Skelton) rode her once in a piece of work and said I quite like this. I said I hope you are right, and he was. She finished the season finishing second in a Grade One which was great.
“We kept her away from Cheltenham because I think Cheltenham over two miles was not really what we asked for.
“I think Cheltenham over two and a half miles is much more acceptable and we will try and go down the mares’ hurdle route with her. She will either start at Wetherby or Aintree.”
“He ran well in the Albert Bartlett the season before last and he won well on his first start over fences but then the wheels fell off in a catastrophic manner - his wind went and we have done a pretty thorough bit of surgery on him. We are very happy with his wind now.
“I’ve never had a horse ever react like that before as he really went downhill. He is a high-quality horse with a real good attitude.
“Where we go I don’t know but I would suppose he would have to have an entry in the Welsh National.”
“I think he will go for the Grand Sefton at Aintree, but he needs a run first and he is likely to go to Chepstow next week. I think he is a progressive horse, but you have to catch him right.
“I think he is a horse that has one of these in him so we will give it a go. Further down the line, he will be one for those two and a half miles to three-mile handicaps.”
“If he is not on the A team, he is on the bench. He is a bit more rideable now as when he was younger he didn’t give himself the best chance to see out his races as he ran a bit keen and you had to let him roll on.
“I just thought he was one of those horses that needed a run, and I thought the pace of the race at Newton Abbot would be too much but it ended up suiting him as he is more rideable now.
“I think he is one we could look at the Badger Beer Chase at Wincanton. He has never really run in big fields, but fortune favours the brave and has got a run under his belt.”
“We are going to train Sail Away, rightly or wrongly, for the Charlie Hall. I know he is only rated 145, and it is a bold move, but my thinking is that if Bravemansgame runs in it that there might not be too many others and if he doesn’t run in it, what are the others in it?
"I’m thinking he might have to put his handicap mark for assault, but it might just work. We will have a look at the entries and most importantly we will check the ground. I think this is a pretty progressive horse and his back-up would be the Sefton."
BEST OF NOVICE CHASERS
“I think Etalon, Pikar and Hitching Jacking could all go very well over fences. These are all novice chasers that achieved a nice level over hurdles that could undoubtedly achieve more over fences. These are all horses here that haven’t got specific targets but don’t be surprised if they raise their marks by 10lb by Christmas then start having targets.”
BEST OF NOVICE HURDLERS
“I think some novices from last season that didn’t win like Ittack Blue, Hoe Joly Smoke and Deafening Silence could be high up there. They weren’t horses that could win, and a couple we pitched in the deep end, and it was like if they can’t win it is not the end of the world if they are a novice next season.
“I think Asta La Pasta, who won a bumper last season, is pretty smart. Goonhilly is another that is useful, as is Rock House, who will run in the Persian War at Chepstow.
“Williethebuilder, who bolted up at Uttoxeter last time out, will run in the Grade Two at Cheltenham later this month. They don’t win much easier than he did. He absolutely cruised through the race.
“Coco Mademoiselle and Cherie D’am are two very smart mares to go hurdling this season.”
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