Unibet Greatwood Hurdle: four key runners and 9-1 tip

Without fanfare, Dan Skelton nudged past £1 million in prize money for this season on the opening day of The November Meeting before extending his lead in the trainers’ championship in some style on Saturday. It will not be lost on him that he’s rattling along even quicker than last term, as 12 months ago he ended the Cheltenham meeting with £939,000 to his name.

A championship that has taunted him for the past couple of years looks firmly within his reach. To be more than £200,000 ahead of this time last year - with another day of The November Meeting a free hit - puts him and his team firmly in the driving seat.

Perhaps this season, Skelton will be out of sight before Willie Mullins starts warming up down the touchline. Paddy Power make Skelton 2-5, with Mullins 7-4 in what looks a straight match.

Mullins is seeking a third successive title after clawing back Skelton on the final day of last season, but he has only £3,750 in the bank and is languishing in 263rd place in the table. We all know he can finish with a rattle from mid-March, but at this rate he is going to have a mountain to climb. 

Mullins had mentioned getting going a bit earlier in Britain this campaign, but he has swerved all three days of Cheltenham and does not have a runner engaged in the £200,000 Betfair Chase at Haydock next weekend, when Skelton is set to be represented by short-priced ante-post favourite Grey Dawning.

Skelton also has three runners in the £100,000 Unibet Greatwood Hurdle on Sunday, with Mirabad, having his first run for the yard, heading the market. The layers have clearly factored in that move, but to my mind Mirabad looks a false price to boost the Skelton coffers.

Dr Richard Newland and Jamie Insole, Mirabad’s previous trainers, miss few tricks and it will be a mild surprise if the gelding is transformed by his stable switch, which he will have to be to hit the jackpot.

He was pushed up 10lb for his all-the-way win at Cheltenham in December, when getting an enterprising ride, and subsequently blew out in the Betfair Hurdle on softer ground. Incidentally, he’s been a non-runner before on soft going in the past, so his previous handlers clearly had reservations about him showing his best under testing conditions.

My shortlist of five are all proven on soft going. 

Trainer: Alan King. Official Rating: 133. RaceiQJump Index: 7.9. Best odds: 9-1. 

Castle Carrock only made his debut this time last year, when bolting up in a bumper at Ayr. That led to him changing hands for £100,000 a couple of days later and being moved from Nicky Richards to Alan King. 

He made an instant impact for his new yard when breezing home on his hurdling bow at Sandown a couple of months later. Most had expected that race to be a cakewalk for the smart Diva Luna, but she was put firmly in her place before franking the form by going on to finish a fine third in the Mares’ Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham. 

Castle Carrock was himself subsequently upped in grade, finishing third in the Grade Two Novices’ Hurdle at Kelso before being a highly creditable sixth (beaten about ten lengths) in Grade One company over 2m 4f at Aintree. 

King was probably left kicking himself, as the handicapper raised him 6lb for that latter effort, but a rating of 133 for his first run in a handicap still looks potentially lenient, especially with more improvement on the cards. The ground was testing when he won at Sandown, and he’s since not had those conditions. His trainer knows what is needed to land this prize, too, having landed it in 2017 and 2019. 

Trainer: Ben Pauling. Official Rating: 136. Jump Index: 7.6. Odds: 22-1.  

Ben Pauling has his horses in great fettle and Fiercely Proud looks a big price to make his presence felt. 

He ended last season with tame efforts at Newbury and Aintree, but he was found to be suffering from an irregular heartbeat on the first occasion (went off at 11-1 for the Betfair Hurdle) and you can forgive him his run at the Grand National meeting, when he was sweating and edgy beforehand. 

The reset button will have been pressed during his 226-day absence and it’s worth remembering that before those efforts he had been an eye-catching sixth in this race, when not seen to best advantage, before landing the richly endowed Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle at Ascot. 

He goes well fresh and Pauling says he has been away for two racecourse gallops, so fitness should not be an issue. Apparently, he is likely to go chasing after this outing. 

Trainer: Alan King. Official Rating: 129. Jump Index: 8.4. Odds: 16-1.  

Some will undoubtedly have given up on him as his winless campaign last season included four defeats when sent off at 13-8 or shorter. 

However, he had something of an unorthodox time as he spent the first half of his season over fences before switching back to hurdles, and his latest effort, when a game second to Our Champ in the Swinton at Haydock in May, hinted we should not give up on him just yet. 

There is substance to that form as the winner had previously been a good third to Absurde at Plumpton, having been beaten only about four lengths behind Kargese in the County Hurdle. 

Helnwein has been nudged up only 1lb and is versatile regards the ground. And as previously stated, his trainer has scooped this prize twice since 2017. 

Trainer: Fergal O'Brien. Official Rating: 127. Jump Index: 7.8. Odds: 8-1.  

A year on from saddling high-profile hot favourite Dysart Enos to finish third in the Greatwood, Fergal O’Brien has a candidate who has slipped in a lot more under the radar in Serious Challenge. 

The five-year-old was a smart stayer on the Flat for Jim Bolger but a rating of 102 left him caught between a rock and a hard place. He was too high in the weights for handicaps and not quite good enough to win in a higher grade. 

O’Brien picked him up for 82,000gns in the summer of last year and successive novice hurdle wins at Plumpton, Ayr and Southwell – when never shorter than 100-30 – would have no doubt satisfied his new connections. 

He was also a good fourth in the bet365 Novices' Championship Final at Sandown on the final day of the season and he shaped well, too, when fourth to Ace Of Spades over 2m 4f on his return at Aintree. 

That outing should have put him spot-on for this assignment, with 2m on testing ground looking an ideal combination. His Flat rating suggests he should be able to win handicaps over hurdles off 127.