Harry Skelton has already enjoyed an unbelievably productive campaign and the best is hopefully yet to come, for he and brother Dan head to Cheltenham with a team he has no hesitation in describing as their “strongest hand by a long way.”
Former champion jockey Harry might lag a long way behind runaway leader Sean Bowen in the numbers game this season, but he’s leading the way when it comes to big-race success, with a Betfair Chase win on Grey Dawning, two of the season’s biggest handicap chases on Panic Attack, plus Grade 2 wins on the likes of Kabral Du Mathan, L’Eau Du Sud, Maestro Conti, The New Lion and Thistle Ask. It’s no wonder he’s so excited about Cheltenham.
It’s been 10 years since Harry and Dan combined for their first Festival success with Superb Story in the County Hurdle, but the memory of that win and of all those that have followed will stay with them forever.
“Cheltenham is our Olympics and the most important four days of the calendar,” he says, “and every jockey, trainer and owner dreams of winning there. Once you’ve had one winner there you just want more. Luckily we’ve tasted success there quite a few times now, and this year we are going with our strongest hand by a long way.”
Looking back he says: “That first win on Superb Story was unbelievable. We’d both grown up going to the Festival and dreaming of winning there and when it happened it was just incredible. There’s nothing like walking back into that winner’s enclosure, especially at the Festival, where the atmosphere is like nowhere else in racing. We’ll always remember our wins there.”
Harry’s stand-out chance of the week comes on day one in the Unibet Champion Hurdle, in which his 2025 Turners Novices’ Hurdle winner The New Lion is favourite in an open race in which there are question marks of one sort or another over all of the main candidates.
The New Lion fell on his return and didn’t impress everyone when beating Nemean Lion in January’s International Hurdle, but Harry was more than happy with him there and clearly fancies his chance.
“He was good last year in the Turners and it was nice to get a clear round under his belt after his fall in the Fighting Fifth,” he says. “We went very slow last time and I was keen to get a lead and teach him a little more after making the running at Newcastle.
“We literally only started quickening once we straightened up, and when you’ve gone that slow you’re never going to win a sprint by five lengths. He showed plenty of speed to win from the position he was in, and he jumped well, which was the main thing. He’s come out of the race really well.”
It’s possible that Harry will already have a win on the board by the time the Champion Hurdle is run because Mydaddypaddy, the one-time favourite, remains a live chance for the opening Skybet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle despite being beaten by Idaho Sun when odds on for Aintree’s Formby Novices’ Hurdle on Boxing Day.
Harry says: “I don’t think we saw Mydaddypaddy at his best at Aintree and he still has his hat in the ring, but that said I think it’s a particularly strong Supreme this year. They removed a lot of hurdles that day at Aintree, which definitely didn’t help, but I was a bit underwhelmed by him. Two furlongs out he was cantering, and normally when you press the button he quickens impressively, like he did at Haydock, but this time he just kept on okay.
“Interestingly at Haydock he raced on the same racing line and same ground as the Supreme favourite Old Park Star did a month later and he was four seconds quicker. He’s a good horse.”
The main hope on Wednesday will be L’Eau Du Sud in the BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase, in which the stable could also run Thistle Ask, who has been one of the finds of the season.
A Grade 1 winner at Sandown as a novice last season, L’Eau Du Sud impressed when beating Jonbon easily in Cheltenham’s Shloer Chase on his return and Harry reckons his failure to reproduce that form when a modest third behind Il Etait Temps and Jonbon back at Sandown in the Tingle Creek is easily accounted for.
“The Tingle Creek simply came too quick and he wasn’t sparking,” he explains. “L’Eau Du Sud likes to be really fresh and he’ll go to Cheltenham having not run since December, which is a big help to him. It’s a pretty open race and I can’t see much between them, but he acts on the track and he’ll go there in good form.”
The stable has several possibilities in Thursday’s Close Brothers Mares Hurdle, but the pick of them looks to be Take No Chances, who was third to Lossiemouth in the same race last year. Harry gives her an each-way chance once again, arguing that she wasn’t beaten that far by a top-class winner after he had dropped her in a fair way back. He says she’ll be ridden handier this time.
The same afternoon Kabral Du Mathan has been among the market leaders for the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle after winning both of his races impressively since joining the stable in the summer, but Harry suggests that he is a far from certain runner.
“We inherited a good horse and he’s improved again since he had the wind op and was stepped up in trip, but we have one eye on Aintree so we aren’t sure if he runs,” he explains.
Aintree is also the preferred target for stable stalwart Protektorat, who is likely to skip the Ryanair Chase even though he won it two years ago. He was no match for Fact To File there last year and there’s little doubt he excels on flat track. Thistle Ask and Panic Attack are also entered here but look to have better prospects elsewhere.
Harry will be very much hoping he has at least one winner on the board by the time he heads back to Cheltenham for day four, but all is by no means lost if he hasn’t.
The unbeaten Maestro Conti faces strong opposition from Ireland in the opening JCB Triumph Hurdle but looks the pick of the home team, having won the Trial over the same course and distance, where he gave the impression he will improve again in a bigger field off a stronger pace.
Harry says: “He’s a lovely horse and has done nothing wrong. He jumps well and has a really good attitude. He’s very straightforward and he showed what a good appetite he has for the game when seeing it out strongly up the hill in the Triumph Trial.
“He can be a bit over enthusiastic and is maybe a bit immature in that sense, but they’ll go a stronger gallop in the Triumph and that should suit him really well. He’s definitely in there with a chance.”
Panic Attack, who has been one of the less expected stars of the brothers’ season, has several entries but looks almost sure to run in the Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase, in which she looks one of Harry’s best chances of the week.
“She’s won three from three this season, including two major handicaps, and goes there with a good solid chance,” he reckons.
Harry’s last throw of the dice will be in the highlight of the entire week, the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup, and Harry thinks his chance on Grey Dawning in what looks an open renewal might be being underestimated following his Cotswold Chase defeat.
“We’ve always had two races in mind for him this season – the Betfair Chase and the Gold Cup – and he won the first of them well. Last time in the Cotswold we went slow, and although I was aware of that I was mindful not to get involved too soon and give him too hard a time.
“Had he jumped two out he’d have been bang there up the run-in with a shot at winning, but it wasn’t to be. We missed the second last and ended up on the back foot, but we still hit the line quite well. He’s won at the Festival before as a novice, he stays well, and the ground will hopefully be a little better, which will suit him.
“There are a lot in there who you can make a case for and he’s one of them. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if it went to a horse at a decent price, it’s so open.”
The handicaps have provided rich pickings for the stable over the years, and Harry has won two County Hurdles and two Coral Cups, so his rides in those races are also well worth checking out.
The stable’s long-term County Hurdle fancy Live Conti is unfortunately out for the season, but Harry suggests Kateira could be one to look out for in the Coral Cup – “she’ll love the hustle and bustle and has been waiting for some spring ground,” he points out – and Be Aware is one to bear in mind for the Grand Annual, in which the fast pace will suit.
If it sounds like an exhausting week we shouldn’t worry too much, as Harry is as fit as a flea and an old hand when it comes to the Festival routine.
He says: “As a jockey you are riding every day, and when it comes to the Festival it just rolls on. I don’t treat the weeks immediately beforehand any different really, as you can’t legislate for falls and so on.
“As you get older you appreciate how hard it is to win there and so you get slightly more relaxed about it. I’ll do my homework as usual, and at that level you know most of the horses you will be riding against and how they are usually ridden, so tactics wise you pretty much know what’s going to happen.
“You might get a bit uptight before it starts as the nerves kick in, but that’s just because you can’t wait to get on with it.”
Not long to go now, Harry. Be lucky.
Graham Dench writing for the Injured Jockeys Fund |