Skelton still fighting in title battle with Mullins

Dan Skelton made the most of a quiet Thursday afternoon for Willie Mullins by extending his title race lead to £57,477 with an across-the-card treble at Perth and Warwick.

The Alcester handler began the day £24,562 clear of the reigning champion, who saddled just one runner at Perth compared to Skelton’s 13 across three fixtures on the day.

Mullins was first in to bat, but his Magic McColgan was beaten into third place as the 8-11 favourite for the opening race in Scotland and picked up just £1,003, meaning Skelton was still £23,559 in front before kicking into action.

His first runner Halondo failed to figure at Warwick, but Gwennie May Jem and Doyen Quest earned over £13,000 between them with victories at the trainer’s local track, before Heltenham picked up £13,008 with a bold front-running success in Perth’s Phil Nelson River Tay Handicap Chase.

Snipe, Hidden History, God’s Own Getaway, Ice In The Veins and Rock House all earned prize-money in defeat to add to the Skelton coffers before sending out four runners at Bangor’s evening fixture.

With Mullins not represented in Britain on Friday, Skelton has the opportunity to go further ahead with two declared runners at Perth and two at Chepstow.

But with 21 horses scheduled to be in action compared to Skelton’s nine on the final day of the season at Sandown Saturday, Mullins is a 1-7 favourite with Paddy Power to overturn the deficit and successfully defend his trainers’ championship, with Skelton a 4-1 shot to lift the title for the first time.

Speaking at Warwick, Skelton told Racing TV: “We’ve tried our best to extend the lead as best we can and he (Mullins) has always just kept us in check by running a few horses in the bigger races.

“I think there’s an air of inevitability about it unfortunately on Saturday, but I’ve enjoyed the last three weeks immensely and if we get beat we get beat.

“I’ve learnt a lot about myself, my staff and my owners – they’ve been absolutely phenomenal.

“I knew what was coming (from Mullins on Saturday), I’m not surprised what’s there and he’s going to be hard to resist. I’ll go down there with a smile on my face and we won’t give up.”