Dan Skelton: Upcoming plans for my leading lights

Dan Skelton is under no illusions of the challenge that faces his stable star Protektorat, who is gearing up for a mouth-watering clash with last season’s Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup hero A Plus Tard in the Grade One Betfair Chase at Haydock Park in just over two weeks’ time (Saturday 19th November).

The pair have previous and this will be the second time that they lock horns this calendar year, after Protektorat finished a commendable third behind his Irish rival in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup – at the end of his second season over fences.

Henry de Bromhead’s charge is a commanding 1-2 favourite with Betfair to follow up his devastating 22-length success from 12 months ago in the first British Grade One of the season, with Protektorat the 11-4 second favourite.

However Skelton is bullish that his charge will arrive on Merseyside as a much improved model from their last encounter in March.

Speaking at a stable visit organised by The Jockey Club on Wednesday, Skelton said: “I’ve been very happy with his pre-season and to be honest he’s come alive over the last 10 days or so. He’s got a bit keen and a bit fresh on the gallops, which is what we want to see with him as when he’s starting to get fit he gets like that.

“One thing to remember about this horse is the fact that he’s had only a couple of runs over three miles and one run over three and a quarter miles. On one of those occasions he’s annihilated a field at Aintree (in the Grade Two Many Clouds Chase) and on another he’s finished a very respectable third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup and I believe there’s still more to come from this horse at this trip.

“He stays this kind of trip very well, he is not over-raced at these sorts of trips and he is young enough to keep improving. Having said all that, we know how far we’ve got to make up with A Plus Tard and he needs to improve. There’s a couple of reasons why he will improve, but Haydock will tell whether he’s able to fully bridge that gap.

“We’re taking A Plus Tard on because I think we have to go left-handed and our chances are enhanced by the fact that it will most likely be slow ground. We’re a second-season chaser and I was always giving it a go, I could have said we’d leave him two more weeks and go to the Many Clouds and start odds-on, but there are times when you have to say you have a Grade One horse and take these races on.

“We’re an underdog and we’re going to put ourselves in the ring and give it our best but if you look at it this race is one of the ‘biggies’ of the year. There are only four Grade One races over this trip this year and they’re all very important. I can’t see him taking in a King George this year and he won’t go to Aintree, so really that’s two big races of the year and this is one of them. You want to be in those races for a start and if we can win one it would be brilliant.

“If that gap was three lengths, I might be saying we might have a chance, but it’s actually more like 15 as we saw at Cheltenham. We’re bullish and we know we’re going to go there and run a big race and everything else but we also know that we’re not going to start as favourite and if A Plus Tard beats us we can hardly act like it was a big surprise either. We’re realistic as well as hopeful and if we are beaten we’ll dust ourselves down and go again.

“I think he will love Haydock and for him it’s very much a case of the more rain the better. If we have three inspections and put racing back half an hour to divert around the puddles, I’d be delighted!”

Skelton isn’t afraid to admit that he’s still learning with this horse and one of the main takeaways from his novice chasing career was to avoid right-handed tracks due to a disappointing run at Wincanton.

He explained: “It’s been a real team project to get this horse to the point he’s at, as a three year old he was barely rideable and Harry (Skelton) said some choice words when he was unseated off him on his first run for us at Cheltenham as a three year old. He took a long time to come together but ultimately it has and continues to do so.

“We ran him in a rearranged Dipper Novices’ Chase at Wincanton and he was nearly in the car park. He was fine around Carlisle and ran very well at Sandown too before that, but I just think it got a little bit into his head and I don’t want to do something that forces you to rebuild.

“If we run a lovely race here at Haydock and then decide to chance it at the King George only for it not to go well, you’re then undoing all the good you did and you’ve got a rebuild on your hands with the Gold Cup coming up pretty quickly.

“I did enter him in the King George just in case – I’d rather have the ticket to be able to go than not – but I’d say it’s highly unlikely as I want to stick to left-handed tracks while the main season is around. If we got to the end of the year and wanted to try right-handed as a tester we could go to Punchestown.

“We’re getting way ahead of ourselves though and we have to focus on the short term, which starts at Haydock in a fortnight.”

The Betfair Chase, Betfair odds: 1-2 A Plus Tard; 11-4 Protektorat; 7-1 Royale Pagaille; 14-1 Bristol De Mai; 16-1 Eldorado Allen, Frodon.

Skelton is due to have a strong races for the supporting card, too, and has pencilled in the mare Get A Tonic for a run in the £125,000 Betfair Exchange Stayers' Handicap Hurdle over three miles and half a furlong. She is a 12-1 chance with sponsor Betfair.

The six year old had a busy but enjoyable campaign last term, running the subsequent Grade One Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle heroine Marie’s Rock close at Warwick in February before winning at Ayr’s Scottish Grand National meeting, and Skelton feels that she will be right in the mix at Haydock in just under three weeks’ time.

He said: “We thought she’d win at Warwick in February and she ended up getting beaten by Marie’s Rock who went on to win two Grade One races, so it wasn’t a bad run in the end. She was only a novice last year, so to hold that type of form was beyond respectable and she will run in the stayers’ handicap at Haydock.

“We’re very happy with her and she stays three miles very well, she won over that trip at Ayr at the end of last season. She’s a beautiful looking mare and she’ll be stepping back into her own sex at some point but when there’s £125,000 on offer we’ve got to have a pop at it.

“I think she’s very acceptably handicapped off 133 when you consider it took half the run-in for Marie’s Rock to get past her at Warwick and I don’t think she’ll slip under the radar in the betting for that race and neither should she – I’d like to think she’s got a massive chance.

“If that went to plan I’d try and drop her back in trip to make her a Mares’ Hurdle horse, but we’ll see. I think she’ll go very well at Haydock unless something extraordinary happens and we’ll have to make plans after that.”

The Betfair Exchange Stayers' Handicap Hurdle – Betfair Odds: 11-2 Run For Oscar; 13-2 Good Risk At All; 7-1 Complete Unknown; 8-1 Botox Has; 9-1 An Tailliur; 10-1 Flight Deck, Gentleman At Arms, Imperial Aura, Might I, Milan Bridge, Peking Rose; 12-1 Petit Tonnerre, Fusil Raffles, Get A Tonic; 14-1 Wakool; 20-1 Brinkley, Dolphin Square, Gold Cup Bailly, Lisnagar Oscar, Navajo Pass, Thousand Tears, Umbrigado; 25-1 Wholestone, Call Me Lord, Main Fact; 33-1 Siruh Du Lac, Ailie Rose, Belargus, Stellar Magic, Tronador, Windsor Avenue.

Skelton also revealed that recent French import L'Eau Du Sud would likely take his chance in the Extra Places Any Day With Betfair Handicap Hurdle over two miles and two furlongs on the card, rather than take his chance in the Unibet Greatwood Hurdle at The November Meeting at Cheltenham.

He explained: “L'Eau Du Sud will go for the £50,000 handicap on the card. I put him in the Greatwood because I just wondered if the ground came up soft whether we’d fancy it but the owners also have Sonigino in that who’s the current favourite, so we can go somewhere else.”

Dan Skelton has revealed that he is relishing the prospect of a mouth-watering clash between stable star Nube Negra and last season’s leading novice Edwardstone in the Grade Two Shloer Chase on day three of The November Meeting at Cheltenham (Sunday 13th November).

The eight year old took the notable scalps of two champion chasers in Put The Kettle On and Politologue when winning the race in some style 12 months ago, though Skelton opted against running his charge in the Betway Champion Chase at The Festival™ at the last minute due to rain on the big day.

The son of Dink then disappointed on his final start in the Grade One Celebration Chase at Sandown Park in April and he will face a graduating novice in Edwardstone who couldn’t have been much more impressive when winning the Grade One Sporting Life Arkle Novices’ Chase for Alan King in March.

However, Skelton feels that there are mitigating circumstances around Nube Negra’s two poor runs at Sandown last term and he’s hoping that we will see a different proposition in a fortnight’s time.

The Alcester handler said: “There will be two very different mind sets between us and Alan King going into next week – one will want rain and one won’t! He can run on Good To Soft, especially when he’s fresh, but it’s very much the better ground, the better the horse with him.

“He’s been to the grass gallop this morning and had a good day out and worked as well as I’ve ever seen him to be honest. I think as he’s getting a bit older he’s drawing just a bit of stamina and he’s looking outstanding, so I couldn’t be happier.

“He’s irritatingly good fresh if that makes sense, as it’s hard to back up a good race in quick succession. You have to give him these extended breaks between races, but we’ll see how we get on at Cheltenham. We would love to win the race again and if it happens we will make a plan after that. If we get beaten we’d have to go hunting for a race but if he can win it will take the pressure off as he can’t have a bad year so to speak.

“Edwardstone is a mightily high-class opponent, albeit one who is stepping out of novice company for the first time, so we’ve got a task on our hands.

“It was a massive blow to miss out on the Champion Chase, but when the conditions went the way they did it wasn’t a blow at all. If I’d have run him he could still have been out there now, but it was a blow to get that rain and miss out – of course it was.

“There’s unfinished business for sure and we’d love to get a fair crack at the race again in suitable conditions, but that’s in the lap of the gods as you saw last year.”

Skelton will have a strong squad for the three-day November Meeting at Cheltenham, which runs from 11th - 13th November, with the feature race being the £160,000 Paddy Power Gold Cup Handicap Chase (Saturday 12th November) over two and a half miles.

The yard has three runners for the contest at the time of writing, but Skelton’s main hope for the race is Midnight River, who is currently a 10-1 chance with Paddy Power. The seven year old returned to the racecourse with a facile 25-length success at Stratford last month and while his participation isn’t guaranteed, his trainer feels that there could well be plenty more to come yet from his charge.

Skelton said: “It would need to rain and rain and rain for this horse. I would certainly not be running him on anything other than Good To Soft, Soft but we’ve always held this horse in high regard.

“We ran him in Graded novice hurdles over timber and last year started disastrously over fences - he head-butted several fences early on and did a cartwheel at the end.

“We then had to rebuild his season and he ended up winning a race at Wetherby and showing a really good attitude. He was only ever going to take a step forward, you were only ever seeing a small percentage of the ability he had (last term) so I was happy to see him take a step forward at Stratford and at least show at the track what he’d been showing at home.

“I think that there’s a lot more to come from this horse and if it isn’t soft enough we’ll re-route to the December Gold Cup at Cheltenham. Ultimately I can see him stepping up to three miles in the spring but this is a good horse and it wouldn’t surprise me if he took a leap up to Grade Two level this season.”

Meanwhile, Skelton hasn’t ruled out the possibility of last year’s Unibet Greatwood Hurdle hero West Cork returning for another crack at the race, for which he is currently a 9-1 chance with the sponsor. The eight year old made a solid start to life over fences when second behind Stage Star in a warm-looking novice at Warwick 24 hours ago and Skelton admitted that he would be monitoring the situation.

He explained: “He ran West Cork over fences yesterday and he was beaten by Stage Star, which was a perfectly acceptable run. I spoke to Mike (Newbould) who owns him at length last night and we said we’d just keep an eye on the Greatwood in case it looked appropriate for us to go back over hurdles.

“If plenty of rain came Playful Saint wouldn’t be without a chance and he’s got no weight, while Calico is entered but goes over fences. We’re a little bit thinner than we have in the past, but if it rained a lot Playful Saint would be no back number.”

Trainer Dan Skelton is bullish about the chances of Third Time Lucki in the Betway Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter on Friday (4th November) – day one of The West Country Weekend.

A total of five horses were declared for the Grade Two limited handicap chase over an extended two miles and a furlong today and Third Time Lucki is currently the 7-4 Favourite with race sponsor Betway.

The seven year old won three of his six starts last season, scoring twice at Cheltenham (including in the Grade Two November Novices’ Chase) and in the Grade Two Lightning Novices' Chase at Doncaster. Owned by Mike and Eileen Newbould, the son of Arcadio was last seen when third in the Grade One Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree in April.

Skelton said: “He’s a very fast horse and you saw him on a number of occasions winning at Cheltenham then at Doncaster. He is very good fresh like his partner Nube Negra and he will run on Friday in the Haldon Gold Cup.

“There’s five runners and a small field suits him, as will a fast run race. He was very good early last season as you saw and I got frustrated and did what I wanted to do at Sandown (in the Grade One Henry VIII Novices' Chase). Harry made the running and it was completely my fault - there was always going to be a day that we tried it and it just didn’t work. The great thing about trying that though is that we’ve tried and we don’t have to try again.

“He’s got a very high cruising speed and touch wood jumps very nicely and I hope that as a second season and beyond chaser he can take high rank with them all. I can see a race like the Grade Two Desert Orchid Chase (at Kempton Park in December) really suiting this horse and then the better the ground in any race the better he will be.

“He shows great speed and I think he’s got a massive chance. Greaneteen being declared gives him a nice weight and he’s got to give 4lbs to War Lord on ground that I believe favours us so he’s got to go well.

“Second season chasers have a great record in the race and I don’t see why he should be out of that mould. He’s very good fresh and his start of season form is exceptional. He won two Grade Twos last year and didn’t quite get the better of Edwardstone, but he’s not there on Friday so hopefully this is our big chance for the start of the season and then we’ll plan things out from there.”

Betway Haldon Gold Cup, Betway Bet: 7-4 Third Time Lucki; 15-8 War Lord; 11-4 Greaneteen; 7-1 Dolos; 33-1 Us And Them.