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“I noticed btw in Dessies Career 28 of his 32 starts were on GF/G/GS ground.”
In the era before Clerks of the Course started pouring water onto the ground…
“However, if Grey Dawning is to win the Gold Cup then the more runs he has as a second season chaser the better his chance is likely to be.”
Not necessarily. Al Boum Photo won the Gold Cup off 164 having run in just the ‘low key’ Tramore race. He had to find 10 lbs at least on what he had shown and found it. And the following season same again, Tramore and another Gold Cup.
“Danger for him by running so many so often is he ruins a few on the way to the glory of the title.
Grey Dawning is a fantastic horse. Were he trained by Mullins though do you think he’d be going anywhere near Kempton (not that he’d have run at Haydock either if he were)?”if he where trained by Mullins then I’d expect main races prior to Cheltenham being in Ireland, staying home. Same if Mullins trained over here then I’d expect him to target UK races again staying home
He isn’t and is trained in UK by Dan Skelton so again staying home UK soilVF x
Dan is def living well , he’s morphing into Nicholls ..
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
Trainer comments for the feature race today- lets see what this tells us after the race- only 2 of then get near to committing they think they will win by my reading
What they say
Paul Nicholls, trainer of Stage Star and Il Ridoto
I wanted to take 7lb off Il Ridoto because he’s gone up 11lb. He’s been in really good form since the Paddy Power and I think he’ll run well. Stage Star will run very well too, he’s a Grade 1 winner, whereas we know Il Ridoto is a handicapper. I’d have a job to split them, but I’d very marginally go for Stage Star.Jamie Snowden, trainer of Ga Law
He’s in great form and I couldn’t be happier with him. He’s been nudged up 1lb for his Paddy Power second, which won’t make life any easier, but he loves the course and the ground should be fine. He should put in another bold display.Gary Moore, joint-trainer of Le Patron
He was great at Newbury last time, but needs to up his game a little bit again as this is a tougher race. He surprised me slightly with how well he went last time as I thought he’d want softer ground. Cheltenham drying out is a bit of a concern, but hopefully he can go well again.Olly Murphy, trainer of Sure Touch
He’s just had his palate done again, as he did at this time last year. Whether the handicapper has got a grip of him now, we’ll see. He’s in good form and hopefully he can outrun his price.Harry Fry, trainer of In Excelsis Deo
It was frustrating to say the least when he unseated in the Paddy Power but thankfully neither he nor Bryan [Carver] were any the worse for wear. We try again over a course where he’s been pretty consistent, be it over two miles and then winning there in the spring. Hopefully he can put in a good round of jumping and if he does he won’t be too far away.Dan Skelton, trainer of Madara
He seems better on the New course than the Old course. He’s been good at home and we know a little bit more about him now.Venetia Williams, trainer of Gemirande
It’s a step up in class, which is why he’s off bottom weight, but he ran really well when he won at Ascot last time. He seems happy on most ground.Willy Twiston-Davies, assistant to Nigel Twiston-Davies, trainer of Guard Your Dreams
He’s come out of his last race well and we feel he’s on a good mark. He’s in really good form and we know he likes the track too, so we hope he’s got a good each-way chance.Alan King, trainer of Grandeur D’Ame
This has been the plan for some time. He loves to be fresh so after he won at Chepstow on his reappearance we decided to put him away for this. He went up 4lb for his Chepstow win, but that was clearly good form as he beat the horses who finished first and second in the Paddy Power Gold Cup. He finished fourth in this race last year and I think he’s a better horse now – he’s certainly working like one.comments from yesterday
5th time Skelton has run Shan Blue at Cheltenham- finally he has come to this conclusion- I wonder if it turns up at the fez?
7. Shan Blue (IRE) 3/1F
Harry Skelton
Dan Skelton
10 115 p 141 67 – –
Towards rear, some headway on outer before 3 out, weakened after 3 out (trainer’s rep said, regarding the poor form shown, that gelding was unsuited by the undulating nature of Cheltenham and would prefer a return to a flatter track) (tchd 10/3)Kendicate your 08:26 post looks more like a December Gold Cup preview than anything specific to do with Dan Skelton ;o)
Congratulations to Dan Skelton and his team on passing the £4 million mark this afternoon.
Surely he can’t be caught in the title race now: Willie Mullins would need to win pretty much everything at Aintree, Ayr and Sandown to retain his crown.
That’s some achievement. He has netted more than twice as much as Paul Nicholls at this point.
The title battle was over after Cheltenham. Dan left with 3.8 million and Willie with 1.9.
Even an Mullins 1-2-3 in the GN plus a few G1s at Aintree won’t stop Skelton. He has lots of decent fast ground horses and might easily add another 500k-600k of prize money on the way to Sandown.He has actually won more in placed prize money (over £2.5m) than in win prize money (over £2.4m) – if you look at the win prize money, Mullins is less than £1m behind but in combined prize money it is actually over £2m.
Mullins will pretty much need to win the two Nationals (with placed horses also), Bet365 Cup (with placed horses also), Celebration & Oaksey Chases and likely most of Aintree’s G1s and whilst we know he does have the firepower to do it, you would imagine that he will likely have smaller teams for Aintree/Ayr/Sandown as he will need his top Cheltenham money earning horses in particular to head to Punchestown, as he still trails Elliott in the Irish Jumps title by nearly £400k.
I know Skeleton is not everyone’s cup of tea but I doubt that any trainer has maximised their whole stable’s earning potential to the extent that he has and as such he deserves to win the trainer’s title this year.
“Dan Skelton, trainer of Madara
He seems better on the New course than the Old course.”He looked quite good on the Old Course this year..
It will be interesting to see what Mullins does now. I expect he will still have runners on the Aintree undercard but perhaps he won’t bother with Ayr, Perth and Sandown quite so much this year?
Patrick might not get to ride a few around the gaff tracks either. And Chris Gordon might be able to have a few winners at Plumpton..
Even though in the final month of last season Mullins won over £2.1m in prize money which saw him notch up eight wins at Aintree (including winning all four G1s on the first day, before his huge National haul), a repeat of that may still not be enough if Skelton can keep picking up prize money here and there.
We know full well that he will send out just about anything in his yard that is fit to run that he thinks will be capable of winning some additional prize money regardless of where the race is as the yard has come too far now (and worked too hard) to not utilise whatever is left in the yard to get this title won.
What happens at Aintree will surely dictate just how much ammunition Mullins will throw at Ayr and Sandown but my guess is that when the dust settles after Aintree, Skelton’s lead will simply be too much even for Mullins to claw back this time around.
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