3 minute read

To head to the Cheltenham Festival with genuine chances in the headline events is what Dan Skelton has worked long and hard for.

The 36-year-old could hardly have prepared better, serving a nine-year apprenticeship with Paul Nicholls before branching out on his own at Lodge Hill Stables in Alcester.

Like his mentor before him, a relentless attention to detail and insatiable appetite for winners is paying handsome dividends – and he has already had the huge satisfaction of seeing his brother, Harry, crowned champion jockey.

"It's now got to the point where you've got a nice team and your horses are worth talking about, which is a good position to be in.

"There's nothing worse than going there with a 66-1 shot thinking 'we're going to be walking into the unsaddling enclosure in a minute'.

"This is significantly the best team we've had in terms of quality. To have players in the three big chases I think almost highlights where we've got to and where we are continuing to aim at. I'd love to have a couple more novice hurdlers going, but you can only run the horses that are going to go there and stand up to the fire.

"With 60,000 people cheering and a hard race to come, it's a physical and mental test. If you take a horse there that won't come through that test positively, you're going to come out of it negatively.

"Throughout a year you look forward to Christmas, you look forward to your holidays, birthdays, anniversaries and whatever. Within this industry, as a professional, you've got things you get a little more excited about as well. Otherwise it's just a mill pot and life ain't a mill pot.

"You're allowed to get a bit worked up, but don't make daft decisions because of it."

Looking forward to it and excited he might be, but Skelton is also a realist and does not attempt to rewrite history – he knows how dominant Ireland were last year and are likely to be again.

"The fallout of the Cheltenham Festival last year after the Irish drubbing made me realise that you have to look at it very unselfishly.

"What everyone wants to see is the top 20 two-mile novice hurdlers run in the Supreme, but some wait for Aintree and some wait for Punchestown and the fact is you have to be cautious with a particular type of horse.

"Sometimes that cautiousness is misinterpreted. I am taking it seriously and last year was a bit of a wake-up call.

"The more you do this job the more you realise the horses have to go there fresh, because what's coming is so intense and so far beyond what is a normal race that you have to be so ready.

"I cannot stress it enough – the difference between 30mph and 30.5mph over three miles is huge. In those championship races they turn it up that little bit and if you're not fresh and can't take that, it's over.

"Make no mistake, it's getting harder to win at that very top level.

"The concentration of the top horses being in fewer yards means they don't miss. They get it so right, but what they can do is split them up.

"You might avoid a Willie Mullins horse in one race, but you're taking on a different Willie Mullins horse in another race. They're still trained by Willie Mullins, they're still at their best and they're still fresh.

"Everyone is saying Ireland are winning everything, and they are, but they've got a great deal of young stock there and they're also spending a great deal of money at the sales. Ultimately, that doesn't guarantee you the best horse, but if you're buying at that level then over a lifetime you're going to achieve more.

"We've got to find different ways of getting these horses. If we can't directly afford them, we've got to find a different way."

Heading the Skelton team is Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup contender Protektorat, the shortest priced of any British-trained contender for the blue riband and deliberately kept fresh since his victory over Native River in the Many Clouds Chase at Aintree in December.

Another high-profile runner is Nube Negra, who bids to go one place better than 12 months ago in the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase.

"I'm really relaxed about it. There's no point getting worked up about it because you've got a chance.

"If I had Shishkin I'd be getting worked up because the betting and the public and everything will tell you Shishkin should win.

"If you have a horse going to the races that's a really short price and has beaten everything before, you're thinking 'I'm going to let everyone down if this gets beat'.

"The truth is you're not letting anyone down. You're only the trainer and decide what the horse does on a day-to-day basis, you can't decide if he gets out of bed the right side that day.

"When you've got contenders, the only thing you can do is get them ready, happy and healthy and go racing. I'm in that position with a lot of horses this year.

"I'd love to win a Gold Cup. I think it's the pinnacle of our sport and the one that says you had the best horse on the biggest day at the best track that everyone was watching. The Gold Cup has that aura about it. To be a Gold Cup-winning trainer or a Gold Cup-winning rider, not everyone can do that.

"The more I do this job the more level I become. You can't have amazing highs and depressing lows.

"If he goes there and does his best and finishes third, then great. If he goes there and it's meant to be and he wins, then great.

"I would be distraught if he goes there and finishes eighth and is never threatening. I get excited about it, but if it doesn't happen you've got to move on."

Nicholls has 12 champion trainer titles to his name. Nicky Henderson has six. Skelton will have some too, it is just a matter of when the first one comes.

"I think next season we can go a bit further. We didn't have a runner in the King George, we didn't have one in the Ladbrokes Trophy. It takes time to build those three-mile horses especially," he said.

"Last year we came out of Ascot's February meeting and thought Harry had a sniff of a chance of being champion jockey and we never let that go.

"To be champion trainer is a slightly different thing. The retirement of AP McCoy left the door open for Dicky (Richard Johnson) and the retirement of Dicky left the door a lot wider open.

"The trainers' table hasn't seen the top two retire and Paul will never stop, don't worry about that!"