Harry Skelton: trainers’ title battle “too close for comfort”

Harry Skelton has admitted that his brother Dan’s battle to win a first trainers’ title is “too close for comfort” after defending champion Willie Mullins’ remarkable rally at Aintree.

Skelton Sr appeared to have one hand on the championship heading into the meeting but Mullins’ eight winners over the three days and astonishing 1-2-3-5-7 in the big race has put a very different slant on things.

Mullins is now just over £120,000 behind with 18 days of the season left.

“Willie saddling four of the first five in the Grand National certainly makes the trainers’ title a bit closer than we would have liked,” Star Sports ambassador Harry Skelton said.

“It’s going to be a busy three weeks for everyone. We’ll run the horses that are due to run but only where it’s sensible to do so, as obviously the ground is drying out.

“We’ve got entries in the Scottish Champion Hurdle, the Scottish National, the bet365 Gold Cup and plenty of other valuable races, so there’s still plenty of prize money on offer. I think we came out of Aintree last year £50,000 behind so although it’s a different scenario this time, it’s still definitely too close for comfort.”

He added: “We’re proud of our team, we’ve broken £3 million in prize money this season and had Festival winners at both Cheltenham and Aintree, so that’s an unbelievable achievement. We want our hands on that trophy, though, and we’re going to fight for it, but it’s not going to be easy.”

Skelton scooped the first edition of the David Power Cup last Friday, boosting his bank balance by £500,000 in the process. He says some of the money will be “given something back to the kids who want to get into the game”.

He said: “It was a great honour to win the David Power Cup. There are a lot of people to thank, first of all Flutter for putting on the opportunity for National Hunt jockeys, and of course to Dan and our owners that have supplied these horses to run in these ITV races.

“It’s been fantastic, the horses have performed well and we’ve managed to gather up plenty of points throughout the season. 

“It’s an incredible amount of money. What I do with it, I’m not quite sure yet, but it’ll support my family and I have a lot of people to thank. A few thank yous will be going out and hopefully we’ll have a nice party for everyone to enjoy. 

“Myself and Lizzie Kelly, who does my PR, have also come up with an idea to hopefully give something back to the kids who want to get into the game. We’d like to try and help some younger people coming into the sport.” 

Skelton also shared his thoughts on a number of high-profile rides he had at Aintree. 

Grey Dawning was the one I was never quite happy with, and I think he maybe could have performed a little bit better. I never felt like I was in a good rhythm, and perhaps the ground was too dry for him. He still ran well, and it was just unfortunate to get beat. 

He ran well on ground that was good enough for him. 

I thought L’Eau Du Sud was just feeling the effects of Cheltenham and a busy season. We’ve asked him to go to every dance this season and he’s performed at all of them. I think he was definitely a bit below his best in the Maghull. He’ll have a nice summer holiday now and we’ll really look forward to him competing in all those top two-mile chases next year. 

I was happy enough early on with Threeunderthrufive [in the Grand National] but after halfway it was evident that the engine was emptying, and it was the sensible thing to pull up before Becher’s on the second circuit. He’s none the worse for it.