Skelton backing stable stars to make Festival impact

Dan Skelton will head to this year’s Cheltenham Festival with contenders for all four feature races, but for a man descended from equestrian royalty then nurtured by one of the greatest National Hunt trainers of all time, it was always destined to happen.

Son of dual Olympic showjumping champion Nick Skelton, a deep-rooted sense of the equine athlete is in the champion trainer-elect’s DNA.

But it is arguably his apprenticeship served under Paul Nicholls at the time of the Ditcheat Galacticos that has prepared this year’s dominant force on the British training scene for what will ensue in the Cotswolds later this month.

Almost 20 years ago, Skelton was alongside Nicholls as Kauto Star, Denman, Master Minded and Big Buck’s travelled from Ditcheat’s millionaires row to conquer all on Prestbury Park turf.

Now it is the turn of the Lodge Hill handler to repeat those heroics in his own name, with The New Lion, L’Eau Du Sud, Kabral Du Mathan and Gold Cup hope Grey Dawning in his corner.

“It’s what we wanted to do and what we all want to do and it feels brilliant,” said Skelton on the prospect of saddling his four big-race contenders.

“To be in the position that we’re in with perhaps 30 or 35 horses going to the Festival, and having representatives in the marquee races, it’s what we wanted to do when we started and it’s what we needed to do.

“I think this season has been one of the best National Hunt seasons I’ve been involved in since I’ve been a trainer myself. When you had Kauto Star and Denman, Long Run and Master Minded and Altior and Sprinter Sacre, they did it all for us – we didn’t need to promote the sport.

“I feel like this year, with the increase of the crowds at the major festivals through the winter and the interest that people have taken in it, has been fantastic.

“It’s great to be part of it. This week is the one that attracts more attention than any other and I think for good reason, especially this year. Sometimes I’ve been a bit negative on it, but now we have the horses.”

There will be many pictures in the archives of Skelton in celebratory mood after Gold Cups of old.

He was one of the first on track to congratulate Sam Thomas when Denman lowered the colours of Kauto Star in 2008, while he was still a central figure in the following years when the Ditcheat greats battled with a vintage crop of staying chasers.

Now as he prepares Grey Dawning for his first tilt at the week’s hottest prize, he is anticipating a fiercely-competitive contest that could even be worthy of comparison with that heralded era.

“I’m really excited about the whole thing, the Gold Cup is the big race of the whole week and we’ve got a contender,” said Skelton.

“The opposition are brilliant and that’s the great thing about our sport and especially that week. We get to see all the stars together and if you’re running in a Gold Cup, you’re exceptional anyway.

“I think there’s a lot of them in there that can win. My opinion is there’s some ahead of us in the betting that we can beat and there’s some ahead of us in the betting that are going to be hard to beat, but I love the sport we’re in and I love competing.

“You look back at the Denman, Kauto Star, Long Run, Imperial Commander, Exotic Dancer years – what a collection of horses.

“At least one of them was in the Gold Cup for that seven or eight-year period and there was probably one year they were all in it together.

“Since then it’s been a great race, but I think we’d all agree the depth of this year’s race is brilliant.

“I’m not saying you’re going to get a Denman performance or a Kauto performance, but not only great performances, great races sell the sport – you don’t need to have broken the track record to have had a great race.”

With 11 Festival winners already to his name, it seems unlikely the Skelton team will fail to make their mark in what has been a dominant season so far.

“I feel like we’re setting a fairly strong pace and I’m very proud of what the horses have achieved,” said Skelton.

“November was phenomenal – it set us up for this to continue, hopefully.

“I said at the start of the season if we make Willie (Mullins) win £4million, he’s never done that before. I feel like we’re on track for that and hopefully that’s enough.”