Mydaddypaddy highlights Skelton treble at Carlisle

Dan Skelton has big-race plans for Mydaddypaddy after he lived up to his tall reputation with a dominant victory at Carlisle.

An impressive winner on his bumper debut at Huntingdon in March, the four-year-old was already prominent in ante-posts lists for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle ahead of his jumping bow in Cumbria and his supporters will have had few concerns.

With the trainer’s brother Harry in the saddle for division one of the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme Saves Lives Maiden Hurdle, the son of Walk In The Park jumped well in the main and did not need to be extended on the run-in to beat dual bumper winner Harbour Island by four and a half lengths.

“We’ve always liked him, obviously he won his bumper nicely in the spring time and we looked forward to going jumping with him,” Dan Skelton told Racing TV of the 1-2 favourite.

“I actually tried my best not to run him last year but he was just naturally ready and you couldn’t hold him back – and I wouldn’t say that too regularly about many horses at all, but it was just the right thing to do.

“He’s obviously very good and the best thing about him today was how he walked round beforehand no bother at all as there is a bit of Walk In The Park and a bit of fire in him from his early days, but the more he’s doing the better he’s getting.”

William Hill make Mydaddypaddy their 10-1 favourite from 14-1 for the Cheltenham Festival’s traditional curtain-raiser in March and he looks set for a step up to Grade One level sooner rather than later.

Skelton added: “With him you’ve got to have the Tolworth (Formby Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree on Boxing Day) in mind and he may just go to Haydock in two weeks for an introductory hurdle, or we we may skip Haydock and go straight there. We’ll just see how his jumping is in the meantime and how he comes out of the race, and then we hope to get him in the best shape we can for the spring.”

The Skeltons won division two with another short-priced favourite in Real Quartz. The £190,000 point-to-point recruit was a 1-6 favourite for his rules debut and while his performance was not quite as smooth as the one produced by his stablemate half an hour earlier, he was ultimately well on top as he won with three lengths in hand.

Lune Brillante (11-4) then looked a class act in the closing Nigel Hawke Raceday Experiences Mares’ Open Maiden National Hunt Flat Race, barely coming off the bridle to provide the brothers with a treble.

The feature race on the card was the £50,000 Weatherbys nhstallions.co.uk Graduation Chase, which went the way of the Sam Thomas-trained Steel Ally.

The high-class hurdler was an 8-11 favourite for what was his chasing debut and he was left in front following the exit of the pace-setting Classic Maestro.

Skelton’s far more experienced Cheltenham Festival winner Unexpected Party briefly threatened to make a race of it early in the home straight, but Steel Ally stamped his class late on to score by five lengths.

Thomas said: “I’m absolutely over moon, he’s always jumped well at home but until you see them do it on the track, it’s a bit of a worry.

“He’s always been a bit of a natural and quite scopey. He’s just a good horse.

“I can’t take any credit for it when the horse is as good as he is, they just know what they are doing. It’s a pleasure to watch.”

The Glamorgan-based trainer admitted to having a “problem” when considering the next plan of attack with Steel Ally as he has another exciting prospect in the same division in the form of Lump Sum.

“It was about how they fared initially with these first runs, with him and Lump Sum really,” Thomas added.

“They’ve both gone and done it nicely, which poses a bit of a problem because we want to keep them apart.

“The Henry VIII (Novices’ Chase at Sandown) is an option for both, not obviously to run against each other, but one will likely go there and then the Kingmaker at Warwick. I just need time to sit with Dylan (Johnston, jockey) and the boss (Dai Walters, owner), and have a look and see what we can work out.

“I think both can stay further as well, so I might not have that dilemma.”