Harry Skelton: my ten horses to follow for this season

This is always a hugely exciting time. We’ve got all the old favourites coming back but we’ve got a massive team of novice hurdlers this year. As everyone knows, our main aim is to try to win a trainers’ championship.

Of course, our team is getting stronger, but I feel we’ll be even stronger next year when the novice hurdlers turn into novice chasers and then become more established chasers.

Here are 10 to keep an eye on this season:

He had the perfect novice season last year, winning the Turners at the Cheltenham Festival, and we’re now dreaming of the Champion Hurdle. The weather will determine how we get there but that’s where we want to end up. Time will tell if we’re good enough.

At the minute it looks a fairly open division, but we certainly don’t underestimate the step from novice to open company. We hope he can take it in his stride as he’s a laidback horse. He has to step up but we’re very excited about the season ahead.

It felt like he emptied out a bit after his run in the Betfair Chase. It was very testing ground that day after they had a lot of rain. If the ground had been different, there could have been a different result. It was nice to get him back in form towards the end of the season, winning well at Kelso and then running creditably at Aintree. He’d probably done enough by then and the ground was a bit too lively for him.

He seems in great form at home and has another year under his belt, so he’s a bit more battle hardened. We’ll run in all the top races and hopefully we can win a Grade One with him. We’ll start in the Betfair Chase and hope we can get to the Gold Cup. We like to mind our novices a little bit and not over race them, but it’s now or never with him. The next two years will hopefully be his best.

What a legend he’s been. He’ll start in the Charlie Hall, ground depending. He seems in absolutely brilliant form at the minute, and you’d think his ideal race will be back at Windsor again in January. He owes us absolutely nothing, he’s been a superstar and is just a pleasure to have around. Hopefully he’ll be in the mix in those top graded races.

Like I’ve said, we’ve got a huge bunch of novice hurdlers and this lad has always showed us plenty of ability. He got the job done nicely in his bumper at Huntingdon in March and we’re now really excited to go novice hurdling with him. We’ll start off over two miles but will let him tell us which direction we want to go. His mother was a good stayer.

I will say that he’s grown up a bit – he’s more mature at home and a bit more laidback which is a good thing. As a youngster last year, you had to be careful that he didn’t overdo things. He’s matured and is very exciting for novice hurdles. We hope he can be a Cheltenham or Aintree horse.

He ran well in his only bumper at Warwick last December behind a smart horse of Paul’s [Nicholls]. Harry [Cobden] got first run on us that day. We see this horse as a middle-distance novice hurdler with plenty of ability. Ultimately, he’s a chaser in the making but I’d like to hope he can take quite high rank as a novice hurdler.

He made a very pleasing debut at Chepstow last Friday and is a horse that has always shown us a good level of ability. I don’t think he’ll want deep winter ground, but you’d like to hope he’s a surefire winner in the making. He could end up as a smart horse.

He missed out last year getting into a handicap at Aintree. He’s a horse that’s always taken a bit of time to mature and for the penny to drop. He’s going novice chasing this year and I hope he’ll rate higher than 128 by the end of the season. He could be one for the big staying handicap chases.

It was a very nice debut run at Cheltenham in a bumper in April. I struggled to pull her up that day which is always a good sign. She’s going to go down the mares’ novice hurdle route and it would be great to end up in the Mares’ Novice at the Festival. She’s pretty smart. 

He’s a lovely horse – we’ve always liked him since getting him as a three-year-old. He improved from his debut at Kempton to win the valuable Goffs bumper at Newbury in March. We’re pleased with everything he does and he’s always jumped nicely. We see him as a chaser further down the line but that doesn’t mean he can’t take high rank in novice hurdles later this season.

She’s one you might not have heard of yet. She won a point-to-point on fairly testing ground and looks a good staying prospect for mares’ novice hurdles this year. She shows a good attitude at home and we’re looking forward to getting her started when the weather changes.