Harry Skelton is to miss the two-day Scottish Grand National meeting after picking up an injury at Cheltenham on Wednesday.
The former champion jockey is on course to finish fourth in the championship this season and enjoyed two winners at the Grand National meeting last week.
He was due to be busy at Ayr for the next two days but a fall from Heltenham in the Silver Trophy has left him with a shoulder problem.
“He’s hurt his shoulder and obviously it’s the time of year when you can give yourself plenty of time,” his brother, Dan Skelton, told Racing TV.
Harry Skelton (left) with his brother, Dan (David Davies/PA)
“I think whatever the prognosis is, he can add a little self-control into that and if he needs any longer he can give it that.
“I don’t know what it is at the moment, he’s going to see a specialist tomorrow just to make sure there’s not too much unknown damage.
“He says he feels quite good so that’s a positive, but if he needs X-weeks, he might take X plus two just to make sure just because of the time of the year it is.
“Expect him when you see him.”
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The Skeltons enjoyed two notable handicap successes as both West Balboa and Midnight River did the yard proud at Aintree.
Firstly West Balboa soared to a unchallenged victory in the Village Hotels Handicap Hurdle.
Dan Skelton’s mare was the 9-2 favourite under his brother Harry after winning the Lanzarote Hurdle when last seen.
Avoiding the mares’ division due to its notable strength and depth this season, the decision to instead target this race paid off as the seven-year-old stepped up in trip.
After travelling well the market leader led over the final flight and then pulled clear to cross the line five lengths ahead of her nearest challenger.
West Balboa and Harry Skelton (Tim Goode/PA)
“She was a fresh horse today and looked fabulous while the step up to three miles was always going to be a plus,” said the winning trainer.
“I knew we had a good mare on our hands, but the mares’ hurdle was so strong it was decided this would be an intermediate year before she steps up to the top level.
“The Lanzarote was £100,000 so you can’t say she hasn’t had a fair year, but next season she will be a player in all those Graded races and it’s something we’re all looking forward to with her.”
Harry Skelton added: “Dan’s a great leader who targets these races so well.
West Balboa runs out an easy winner of the Village Hotels Handicap Hurdle
“There are so many important people in our team that combine to make it happen. Cheltenham is our Olympics, but this is another great meeting with the world’s greatest race.”
Midnight River continued a memorable afternoon when landing the William Hill Handicap Chase for the same rider and trainer.
A 15-2 chance for the three-mile-one-furlong contest, the chestnut was left to pick through the field after the final bend.
He jumped the last with just a rival before him and then pulled clear to triumph by a length and a half.
The trainer said: “He’s just a good horse that has always had great potential, and he’s done that off (a mark of) 151.
Midnight River picks his way through to win the William Hill Handicap Chase
Langer Dan made it third time lucky at the Cheltenham Festival when holding on for a brave success in the Coral Cup.
The big meeting has been a cruel mistress for the Dan Skelton-trained seven-year-old in the last two seasons, bumping into Gold Cup favourite Galopin Des Champs in the 2021 Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Hurdle before being brought down at the second flight when sent off favourite for the same race 12 months ago.
This year stable jockey Harry Skelton was given his chance aboard the 9-1 winner and despite having plenty to do when short of room two out, he was inspired in the saddle from the home turn.
Hitting the front halfway up the run-in, he drove his mount home with vigour to hold off An Epic Song (second) and Campround (third) in three-way tussle at the finish.
Harry Skelton celebrates aboard Langer Dan (Andrew Matthews/PA)
Dan Skelton said: “He’s a great horse to train because he puts it all in when it matters.
“The best thing that happened is that they shut the door on him two out which meant battle was renewed, and he likes that because he had to get out of jail as if it was another race.
“What this horse has got is heart. He’s all heart and it’s part of him.
“He comes alive in the spring, but we’ve got more chances to come. Compared to Wille Mullins we’re in the foothills, but we strive to get better and our team is stacked with talent.”
There was a first Festival winner for Darragh O’Keeffe as he steered Henry de Bromhead’s Maskada to victory in the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual.
Maskada ridden by jockey Darragh O’Keeffe on their way to winning the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup Handicap Chase on day two of the Cheltenham Festival (David Davies for the Jockey Club/PA)
Jumping the final fence alongside defending champion Global Citizen and Dinoblue, the 22-1 shot took advantage of a jolting error from 7-2 favourite Dinoblue to scorch to a six-and-a-half-length victory.
De Bromhead said: “She was really good, we’re delighted with her. Darragh gave her a super ride so I’m delighted for him, it’s his first winner here, that’s brilliant.
“I’m delighted for the Marigas (owners) they are great supporters of ours and we had a nice winner for them on Saturday and here today.
“We bought her last season, just before Punchestown, and she had a nice run there. They have some very good broodmares and she looked ideal to add to the band. She had good form in the UK, I don’t think we’ve done a lot with her.
“She had form over further and in soft ground so we are delighted.”
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Harry and Dan Skelton have their eyes on another fruitful day on Saturday following a dream weekend at Warwick and Kempton.
A Grade Two double at Warwick courtesy of Grey Dawning and Galia Des Liteaux was supplemented by the mare West Balboa winning the Lanzarote Hurdle under Bridget Andrews, who is Harry Skelton’s wife.
The brothers have now set their sights on Haydock with the exciting Pembroke entered in the Sky Bet Supreme Trial Rossington Main Novices’ Hurdle, old favourite Blaklion in the Peter Marsh Chase and Lac De Constance in the Patrick Coyne Memorial Altcar Novices Chase.
“Lac De Constance was good first time, but just a bit novicey second time,” said Harry Skelton.
Blaklion could be out again this weekend (Mike Egerton/PA)
“I think the step up to two and half (miles) will help him. The softer the ground, the better. He has Arkle and Turners Novices’ Chase entries (at the Cheltenham Festival), but nothing is set in stone for him.
“If Blaklion goes, he loves it round Haydock, loves the heavy ground. He seems in really good form at home and he seems to have much the same enthusiasm.
“Pembroke will be up in class and it was a good performance at Ludlow last time. We hope he can cope with going up in class.
“He is a nice, progressive horse. He is a lovely horse, long-term, who we think will be really good.”
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Grey Dawning stayed on stoutly to throw his hat into the ring for the Cheltenham Festival with a gritty display in the Ballymore Leamington Novices’ Hurdle at Warwick.
Winner of a handicap off just 123 at Kempton on Boxing Day, Dan Skelton’s charge faced a huge rise in class for the Grade Two event.
Won by the likes of Inglis Drever, Carruthers, The New One and Willoughby Court in the past, the race can certainly throw up a top-class performer.
On paper at least it looked wide open, with Gary Moore’s Givega, related to the great Quevega, sent off the 3-1 favourite in a field of seven.
Harry Skelton returns triumphant (Nigel French/PA)
Lucinda Russell’s Snake Roll tried to stretch the field but his jumping fell apart down the back straight when Paul Nicholls’ Knowsley Road, Tom Lacey’s Ginny’s Destiny and the eventual winner all pulled clear.
Grey Dawning (9-2) briefly looked in trouble at one stage and then when Harry Skelton went for a gap between the other two, it began to close.
Skelton had enough horse underneath him, though, and the grey pulled clear in testing conditions to win by five lengths from Ginny’s Destiny.
A delighted winning trainer said: “We’ve always liked him. It’s pretty obvious to say a horse that has won two bumpers you are quite excited about as a novice hurdler, but you’ve got to go and convert that and I think he has done. It was no disgrace to get beat first time, we needed the run a little bit then, but the horse of (David) Pipe’s that beat us is a good horse in his own right.
“This horse has got progressive now and he’s just smart, he’s very smart.
“I had to go to Kempton because he was so well handicapped and I knew I wanted to come here with something. I had Pembroke in mind, but I just think he wants to stick at two miles for now so he’ll go to the Rossington Main next weekend. And when I felt that way about Pembroke, I started to feel differently about Grey Dawning.
A Grade Two double for Dan and Harry Skelton at Warwick as Galia Des Liteaux wins the Hampton Novices’ Chase, followed 35 mins later by Grey Dawning in the Leamington Novices’ Hurdle @DSkeltonRacingpic.twitter.com/nu26fzhvQT
“He’ll go any trip and he can go further. Harry said he wasn’t loving the ground – he gets away with it, but he wasn’t loving it.
“In fairness it’s probably good that it has rained, he probably wouldn’t be at home on real tacky ground, at least it was a bit loose. He wouldn’t want to race here on Tuesday, I think he’d find that really unpleasant. He’s going the right way though that’s for sure.”
He went on: “My immediate reaction is he should be going three miles rather than two and a half. We’ll enter him in the Albert Bartlett and if we weren’t happy with that we would go to Aintree. We will see how he is and how the landscape looks for Cheltenham, but I would be highly surprised if he ran at Cheltenham if it was anything other than the Friday.
“Over three miles you could probably ride him a bit more and arrive later on the scene. In a weird way, what happened at the last probably isn’t the worst thing in the world to get a bump and make him concentrate a little bit because when he hit the front at Kempton he ran all over the shop. He’s probably just improving a bit as well and getting the hang of racing.”
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Galia Des Liteaux never put a foot wrong as she jumped her rivals into submission in the eventmasters.co.uk Hampton Novices’ Chase at Warwick.
Dan Skelton has made no secret of the regard in which he holds the seven-year-old mare, and when she won a Listed event for mares on her chasing debut the sky looked the limit.
Upped to Grade One level for the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase over Christmas she almost fell at the second and then made another bad mistake at the fifth before she was eventually pulled up.
Connections were content to put a line through that run, insisting that her jumping was sound in the main – and so it proved on this occasion as she put in some big leaps on the way round.
Paul Nicholls’ Complete Unknown was giving vain chase, as was Gordon Elliott’s The Goffer, but neither could ever get on terms.
With the last fence bypassed, Harry Skelton kept Galia Des Liteaux (11-4) up to her work to take Grade Two honours by 13 lengths.
“She made a very bad mistake at the second jump in the Kauto Star and I don’t think anyone would really have beaten Thyme Hill that day. It’s almost a blessing in disguise that she did that because it meant she didn’t have a hard race,” said Dan Skelton.
“I was surprised with what happened at Kempton and because she made the first mistake she made the second one. If she hadn’t made the first one she wouldn’t have made the second one. When you are trying to chase those good horses and making mistakes it’s not going to happen, so Harry did the right thing pulling her up because she wasn’t going. If he had kept going she possibly wouldn’t have been here today.
Galia Des Liteaux (right) in full flight under Harry Skelton (Nigel French/PA)
“There’s nothing better than a good lady in your corner. I’m very lucky I have my wife, my daughter and now Galia Des Liteaux as well. We’ve done well with the mares over the years, Roxana probably leads the team – she won a Grade One – but this one is obviously very, very good.
“I know she wants slow ground and we know she stays. She won at Bangor because she’s good. She didn’t win there because two miles suits her, she won there because she’s good. So I was always confident and she’s going in the right direction as a chaser.
“We will be respectful of her efforts there today. It is very easy to say we will go for the Towton (at Wetherby) in three weeks’ time because it will be heavy and it will suit her, but I harbour more respect for her than that.
“We could wait another two weeks and consider the Reynoldstown (at Ascot) then that’s fine. If you got a really, really soft Cheltenham then it would come into consideration, but then you would have to skip the Reynoldstown because you couldn’t do both.
“Then I would perhaps get a bit adventurous and see what mares’ races are available over the other side of the Irish Sea because I can’t see any over here jumping off the page at me at the moment other than the Festival.
“I don’t think she won’t perform well on it (better ground), I just think she’s really, really effective in that sort of ground and sometimes when you have a horse who is really effective in it, they are super effective – they can outrun themselves by 20lb or more and I think she is a horse who is reallyy suited by bad ground.
“She’s a lovely mare with a great attitude.”
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Midnight River showed plenty of stamina to give Dan and Harry Skelton the best start to 2023, landing the Paddy Power New Year’s Day Handicap Chase at Cheltenham.
The eight-year-old advertised his credentials when a staying-on third in the valuable Paddy Power Gold Cup at the same venue on his previous run, albeit that was on the Old Course and on quicker ground.
The Midnight Legend gelding jumped with authority and always had the better of Stolen Silver after pinging the last fence, the 6-1 shot recording a two-and-a-quarter-length victory, with the rider’s spread-eagled arms celebration with his hands off the reins as they crossed the winning line, speaking volumes.
“He didn’t need the reins at all – he was just showing off,” smiled the winning trainer.
“That was really, really good. Obviously, it was a bit frustrating in the Paddy Power, as the ground wasn’t quite soft enough for him. It was what it was on the day and of course, you get a different winner. We all get our chances, because of the weather, and this has really suited him.
Midnight River and Harry Skelton (David Davies/PA)
“But we should also take into consideration this track (New Course), which is much better for him that the other track (Old Course).
“Those two things coming together, the culmination of that, has helped us a lot. He has always been a very good horse. He threw himself on the floor last year at Carlisle, like I’ve never seen before. It was remarkable what he did.
“I thought we’d have real problems and we just had to nurse him round all last year, but this year it has been all about putting it together into a big day. Of course he has backed up a good run in the Paddy Power before coming here and he is going the right way.”
Options are open for Midnight River and Skelton added: “There is the Millions meeting at Lingfield – the Fleur De Lys is a consideration, but I wouldn’t be running him against 165-rated horses – then there’s back here on Trials Day.
“We could consider something more flashy, or you just hold fire and come back for the Plate or the Ultima if it was a bit quicker.”
Weveallbeencaught and Sam Twiston-Davies (David Davies/PA)
Weveallbeencaught will also return to the Festival in March after making all the running and justifying 5-4 favouritism in the Ballymore Maiden Hurdle.
Sam Twiston-Davies had to work hard aboard the £210,00 purchase, who was beaten here on his return by Challow winner Hermes Allen, with trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies hinting that the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle – for which he was cut to 12-1 from 20-1 by Paddy Power – would be his preferred option, rather than the Ballymore.
“He doesn’t have to have three miles, but he will be better at three, you’d think,” said Twiston-Davies.
“He will come back in March for one of the two novice hurdles. I’m sure it will be the three-mile one. We don’t want to take on Hermes Allen. We’re not stupid.”
Rapper and Richard Patrick (David Davies/PA)
Rapper (8-1) continued the fine form of trainer Henry Daly when staying on relentlessly in the AIS Handicap Chase to score by eight and a half lengths under Richard Patrick.
“If you’d have watched him go round earlier in the year, you’d have said he’d have struggled here. Put a pair of cheekpieces on and he’s taken off,” said Daly, who was having his sixth winner in the last fortnight.
“I just thought, when he ran at Haydock, he was always on the back foot. We don’t know if it will work a second time, but he was totally different today.”
Hector Javilex was a Cheltenham winner (David Davies/PA)
Fresh from Tea For Free’s success at Newbury on Saturday, trainer Charlie Longsdon and jockey Lily Pinchin teamed up again to score with Hector Javilex (8-1) in the three-mile Paddy Power Handicap Hurdle.
Longsdon said: “Three miles and slower ground suited. He had a trapped epiglottis on his first run in this country on slow ground. He couldn’t breath. Since then we have only run him on better ground, for no reason other than that is what was put in front of us.
“He relishes this slower ground and it looked like it today – that was a career-best by a country mile. We have now got to look at a Pertemps Qualifier, really. If he is going to be rated mid-130s, that does sneak him in the Pertemps, so we will have to think about that and come back in the spring, maybe.”
Fiercely Proud (right) won the closing bumper (David Davies/PA)
Ben Pauling is in two minds about whether Fiercely Proud will line up in the Champion Bumper at the Festival meeting in March after his half-length success in the JCB “Junior” National Hunt Flat Race.
He said: “To be honest, today was the aim. We didn’t know if he would handle soft ground. I would imagine we will keep him in bumpers and look towards one on the better bumpers.
“We all know the Irish are pretty deadly at those but whatever happens, he is a lovely horse for next year.
“I will speak to (owner) Tim Radford and Jamie and Harry, his two sons. They are fanatical and no doubt we will have a chat and see where we go.
“They have run horses in the Champion Bumper before. I haven’t. I’m not the biggest fan of the race.
“But he is probably the type of horse who could possibly run in it. He’s a flat-bred three-year-old that looks like he’s improving, so maybe.”
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Before I post the daily selection, just a quick reminder of how I operate the service. Generally, I'll identify and share the selection in the evening before the following day's race and I then add a detailed write-up later on that night/next morning.
Those happy to take the early price on trust can do so, whilst some might prefer to wait for my reasoning. As I fit the early service in around my family life, I can't give an exact timing on the posts, so I suggest you follow us on Twitter and/or Facebook for instant notifications of a published pick.
...in a 7-runner, Class 2, Handicap Chase for 4yo+over 2mon soft ground worth £16,458 to the winner...
Why?...
Well, we're with the Skeltons today and their 6 yr old gelding who was won 7 of his last 10 outings and is 9 from 20 in his entire career, including 3 from 5 over fences and...
8 from 16 with Harry in the saddle
8 from 10 in fields of 3-8 runners
7 from 16 over trips shorter than 2m1f
and 7 from 13 at 11-35 days since last run.
He has won on soft ground and also over course and distance and in fact won on soft over C&D last time out, when comfortably clear by nine lengths! And referring back to the above numbers, he is 4 from 6 (66.6% SR) for 3.62pts (+60.4% ROI) when Harry rides him in fields of 3-8 runners over trips shorter than 2m1f at 11-35 dslr.
Both Harry and trainer Dan have good records here at Ludlow, but (a) that's fairly common knowledge and (b) it's actually highlighted on your race card via the green C1 and C5 icons, so I won't go there today.
Instead I'm going to focus on the fact that since 2014, Dan's former C&D winners sent off within 45 days of an LTO win anywhere are 19 from 41 (46.3% SR) for 11.23pts (+27.4% ROI) at odds of 6/1 and shorter, from which, they are...
19/38 (50%) for 14.23pts (+37.5%) with Harry in the saddle
18/34 (52.9%) for 17.08pts (+50.2%) who won over C&D LTO
16/28 (57.1%) for 10.75pts (+38.4%) since the start of 2017
16/26 (61.5%) for 21.01pts (+80.8%) with 5-7 yr olds
11/25 (44%) for 10.67pts (+42.7%) in handicaps
9/14 (64.3%) for 7.9pts (+56.4%) over fences
5/11 (45.5%) for 2.46pts (+22.4%) stepping up a class
and 3/7 (42.9%) for 7.61pts (+108.7%) on soft ground...
...whilst when Harry has ridden the 5-7 yr old LTO C&D winners from above since the start of 2017, they are 13/16 (81.25% SR) for 17.53pts (+109.6% ROI) and these include 8 from 10 in handicaps, 8 from 8 over fences, 4 from 5 stepping up a class, 4 from 4 in handicap chases and 2 from 2 on soft ground...
...pointing to...a 1pt win bet on Hatcher @ 11/4 BOG as was offered by Bet365, BetVictor & Unibet at 5.25pm on Monday. Do use BOG if possible, as this one might drift a little, but to see what your preferred bookie is quoting later...
P.S. all P/L returns quoted in the stats above are to Betfair SP, as I NEVER bet to ISP and neither should you. I always use BOG bookies for SotD, wherever possible, but I use BFSP for the stats as it is the nearest approximation I can give, so I actually expect to beat the returns I use to support my picks. If that's unclear, please ask!
00mattbisognohttps://www.geegeez.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/geegeez_banner_new_170x78.pngmattbisogno2019-12-17 17:26:572019-12-17 17:26:57Stat of the Day, 18th December 2019
