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Author: Peter McNeile

Hillview is a cut above

Posted on by Peter McNeile

Hillview provided the most facile victory of the day yesterday in recording his fourth win of the campaign, and third within a month, in Stratford’s Savage & Stride Wedding Celebration Handicap Hurdle. The Irish-bred gelding, a winner previously at Bangor and Southwell (twice), notched up a 31st winner of the term for Cheshire handler Gary Hanmer, and there won’t have been many easier.

By contrast, the winner of the opener, Kinondu Kwetu, had to work rather harder to assert over long time leader Starsky from the powerful Skelton yard. The false pace of a three runner field made the race a sprint from the last, where the Sam Engkand trained winner was able to apply speed to overcome Starsky.

Morganstern was further confirmation of the in-form status of Somerset’s David Pipe when winning the Claudio’s 50th Birthday Novices Handicap Chase by 2 1/2l from Arbennig. This was the second leg of a cross-card double for Pipe following Neon Moon’s victory at Wincanton. Remarkably, the stable is running on a 40% strike rate over the past fortnight. Statisticians take note.

Anthony Honeyball has emerged to be a fearsome competitor in the middle ranks of the Trainers’ Championship. Fresh from winning a valuable handicap at Aintree on Grand National day, he followed up here with a horse of rather less ability. Midnight Callisto always had her rivals in hand and ran out a convincing winner of the Mares Handicap Hurdle for a 35th winner of the season for Honeyball.

A disappointing run from Snow Leopardess in the Randox Grand National wasn’t enough to knock the momentum from the Charlie Longsdon stable. Largy Nights and Kingston King fought out a tug of war for the lead from the final bend, neither excelling in jumping the last in the 3m3f Handicap Chase. However, it was Largy Nights who stayed on more dourly to win by 1 1/2l.

Largy Nights wins at Stratford for the Longsdon stable 10/4/2022 Pic Steve Davies

On a weekend when the amateurs of the game demonstrated their contribution to the sport in spectacular style through Sam Waley-Cohen’s Grand National victory on Noble Yeats, it was another accomplished amateur who snaffled the Stratford Grass Roots Hunters Chase, the last of our chases. Picking off the leader Tel ‘Art as they rounded the final bend, owner-trained and ridden Peacock’s Secret under Dale Peters ran on to be a convincing victor, and may well return here on May 31st for the Finale Hunters evening. The 14l margin could readily have been over 20.

Peacocks Secret wins at Stratford for Dale Peters. 10/4/2022 Pic Steve Davies

All the extra accoutrements seemed to work for Mickyh as tongue strap and blinkers kept the 9 year old up to his work under a forceful ride from Jamie Moore in the Bet at Racingtv.com Novices Handicap Hurdle. The second, Justified, stayed on resolutely, and there is a race for him somewhere.

Can Blaklion make one last great Grand National effort?

Posted on by Peter McNeile

Dan Skelton and his team had a solid week at Cheltenham Festival, although a winner eluded the trainer. Protektorat put forward a fine performance in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup, but could not match the pace of A Plus Tard from the last, finishing third behind a Henry de Bromhead one-two with Minella Times in second.

Skelton will now turn his attention to the Aintree Festival next week where he will attempt to pull off a shock to disrupt the potential for further Irish dominance of the major races in the National Hunt calendar. Blaklion is the best option from Skelton’s yard for a bet on Grand National 2022 at 66/1, although it would be a remarkable performance considering the age of the horse. It would be a surprise to see the 13-year-old top the Grand National results 2022 as the last horse of that age to win the event was Sergeant Murphy in 1923, and there are only three cases of competitors 13 or over who have won the National. None of these victories have occurred in the modern era, and the last six winners of the event have been under the age of 10. Nonetheless, records are there to be broken.

Blaklion was a strong contender at the peak of his powers under the tenure of Nigel Twiston-Davies. In 2017, he went to post as favourite at 8/1 for the National, but was beaten by One For Arthur. Blaklion returned as one of the top horses in the field for the 2018 race, but luck was not on his side as he was brought down at the first fence by a falling rival. The horse changed into the hands of new owners Darren & Annaley Yates in 2019 after he missed the Grand National, and was eventually passed into the yard of Skelton after a brief stint with Philip Kirby.

He was off the pace in his first races under Skelton’s charge, putting forward underwhelming outings at Ascot, Warwick and Newcastle before the 2021 Grand National. Although he was a 50/1 outsider, he still raced competitively at Aintree and finished sixth, which was more than a respectable performance from the veteran.

Blaklion has found his form over the course of the 2021/22 season after a slow start. He and the rest of the field were well beaten by Snow Leopardess at Bangor-on-Dee in November. However, he was on song to claim his first victory in five years, triumphing at Haydock Park in the Altrincham Veterans’ Handicap Chase. Skelton’s charge made it two wins out of two with a dominant display in the Last Fling Handicap Chase, finishing 28 lengths ahead of his nearest rival The Two Amigos.

He was unable to sustain his form in his last outing in the Grand National Trial Handicap Chase as he was pulled up four fences from the end of the contest, although only three horses completed the race in heavy conditions.

The 13-year-old does have a semblance of momentum and could be ready for one last great effort to etch his place in the history books. Aintree brought out the best in him some years back, and many horses approach Aintree very differently to park courses. It would be a remarkable achievement for all concerned, and running into a place again would be a feather in the cap of Team Skelton.

Bannister treble adds sparkle to bright Spring day

Posted on by Peter McNeile

A large crowd appreciated the warm Spring sunshine as Stratford dusted itself off for its first weekend fixture of the Spring return to action.

Kap Auteuil has a keen appreciation of Stratford by all appearances, after his third chase win here within a year in last Saturday’s Paul Diblasio Memorial Handicap Chase. The seven year old has progressed to an official rating of 136, putting him within reach of some of the sport’s big handicaps next autumn with this sort of progression.

Kap Auteuil completes a treble for jockey Harry Bannister at Stratford. 26/3/2022 Pic Steve Davies

His trainer, Toby Lawes, has good reason to appreciate this bellwether of his stable, as does his rider, Harry Bannister, replacing regular rider Tom Cannon on this occasion, who was enjoying a treble after two wins earlier in the day.

Those two earlier winners were courtesy of Hampshire trainer Richard Bandey, for whom this season has been a breakthrough year. After winners counted on the fingers of one hand these past 5 years whilst graduating from the Point-to-Point field, this year the tally from Plantation Farm near Tadley, stands at 15. The fourteenth of these – Give Me A Moment – never looked like creasing his trainer’s brow in the opening 25 Club Handicap Chase, making all and drawing clear two out to ease down near the line, still 31l clear of runner-up Court Royal. And whilst this was a slowly-run race, the odds-on favourite was there to be taken on, but nobody did.

Half an hour later, Bandey’s cup overflowed, when Ernie Bilko, ridden handily throughout, took it up two out and ran on and away from the rest of the field, winning going away in division one of the handicap hurdle. For modest – sized yards, these days are magic.

In the second division of the handicap hurdle, Colin Tizzard edged closer to the £1m prize money marker when The Changing Man overcame Matt Sheppard’s Always Able by a comfortable 3 1/2l. The stewards looked into the horse’s improved form and were satisfied with the explanation that the horse appreciated the drying ground. In truth though, all the races were run consistently slower than standard, which leaves you wondering as to the quality of these two races overall.

Runners pass the stands in the Lady Ella’s Handicap Hurdle [Div 2] at Stratford. 26/3/2022 Pic Steve Davies

Another yard close to a personal best is Emme Lavelle, who is just £60,000 off her best season, achieved in 2018-19. With a growing number of horses rated over 150 that allow her to compete with the Saturday crowd, Emma is successfully making a go of her ambitious move to Ogbourne Maizey a few years back. This time around, it was American-bred Point Him Out, tranferred across from Michael Stidham’s outfit before Christmas, who broke his UK Jumps duck in the Margaret Banister Celebration Novices Hurdle. More to come here I’d say.

Stratford is a course that holds to traditions successfully, one of which is to maintain a series of selling races, which have largely disappeared elsewhere. A useful source of income to racecourses, Saturday’s was little different, the winner, a rare Skelton runner in a seller, being bought in for 29,000 guineas. It also produced another winner for emerging amateur Tristan Durrell, enjoying a ninth winner this season, all bar one for the boss.

The day concluded with a race in the name of the Cotswold Larder, a Broadway-based business that will be known to anyone visiting the Owners & Trainers’ Bar at Stratford, where delicious cakes are in abundance. The Cotswold Larder also supplies Fergal O’Brien, possibly one further reason why the likeable Cotswold trainer has acquired so many new owners!

Winner Lightfoot Lady clearly hasn’t been indulging herself with pastries, winning with plenty in hand on her debut for the Nicky Henderson yard by a comfortable 2 1/2l.

We’re off again!

Posted on by Peter McNeile

Glorious spring sunshine heralded another season’s racing at Stratford this afternoon, the first horses to have appeared on the course since the adieu in November, and 51 horses faced the starter for an entertaining afternoon, a precursor to a feast of top quality Jump racing over the next five days.

Horses take the new white boarded hurdles for the first time in the country on a racecourse at Stratford. 14/3/2022 Pic Steve Davies/Racingfotos.com

For the quick-minded, the reference to five days is not an onward wave to a fifth day of the Festival, but an acknowledgement that there are now superb cards catering for the less than utterly brilliant at Uttoxeter and Kempton that illustrate that our sport is not all about one venue and 28 races. Horses, owners, trainers and riders all have their preferences, which is what makes our sport so rich in variety.

Festival fever allowed for a healthy crowd on this sunny afternoon, bolstered by early travellers from across the Irish Sea. If the Cheltenham roar was absent from the start of the first race of the season, it was yet more muted as Tommie O’Brien brought home Getaway Luv a 3 3/4l winner of the opening Novices Handicap Chase for owner/trainer Clive Boultbee-Brooks. This family operation in Herefordshire has just a handful of horses in training but a 60% strike rate testifies to some sound knowledge of where to place one’s horses.

The output from trainers named Williams in the UK is due to reduce this summer as the likeable Nick Williams ups sticks to expand his stable in France too. He has made a terrific contribution to the Jumps scene, not least with offspring named de Sivola, and produced another in the second, a Juvenile Hurdle, where Interne de Sivola outpaced Silver Shade, diverting from a Triumph Hurdle option to win by 2 1/4l.

There’s a keen rivalry between Nick and his former spouse Jane, who trains from the same premises. The glue that holds them together is the burgeoning career of their son Chester, who rode his step-father’s horse in the second, and made for a quickfire double for mother in the Bobby Brown Retiral Handicap Chase 30 minutes later on Esprit de Samoza. He had to pull out all the stops in a driving finish, in which runner-up Corran Cross lost nothing in defeat.

Esprit De Somoza [left] jumps the last to win at Stratford. 14/3/2022 Pic Steve Davies

Oakley showed a clean pair of heels to the opposition in the feature handicap hurdle, drawing clear two out and galloping to the line despite a renewed challenge from second-placed Osprey Call. The winner weas returning to winning ways for the first time since January 2019, and continued a good run of form for Hampshire-based Richard Bandey with this Philip Hobbs cast-off.

There was a close finish to the pointtopoint.co.uk Novices Hunter Chase where a decent field showed why Stratford continues to appeal to the grass roots of the sport. In recent months, hunter chase fields have rarely exceeded 6 runners, but 10 faced the starter, and there were two in it at the last. Drake’s Well, ridden by Alice Stephens, had been overtaken, but Jaunty’s Well pecked on landing, allowing Stephens to assert under a driving finish, to win by 1 1/4l.

Olly Murphy is still looking for a first Festival winner, but Ukantango flew the flag for the yard in the concluding bumper, winning on the fence as Aiden Coleman scraped the paint all the way round. He was well supported on this debut under Rules.

Skelton’s Festival team has been well primed

Posted on by Peter McNeile

Dan Skelton’s success at the Cheltenham Festival has been somewhat sporadic, unlike his rivals with whom he will do battle for the major honours over four days next week. Willie Mullins, Henry de Bromhead, Nicky Henderson, Gordon Elliott, Colin Tizzard and Paul Nicholls will all have ambitions of securing the leading titles of the week, with the Irish contingent boasting a strong claim for seemingly every top race at the Festival.

However, Skelton has had a solid season with his best horses and could be in line to shock spectators across jumps racing by making a successful bid for the Gold Cup among others, which feature a number of intriguing prices in the Cheltenham betting 2022 options. Skelton has more than a decent shout in the signature event of the week in the Gold Cup with his charge Protektorat, laid out for the race. The bay gelding is considered one of the leading contenders in the Cheltenham Gold Cup tips behind A Plus Tard, Galvin and Minella Indo for the blue riband of the sport. To win the Gold Cup would be a significant breakthrough for Skelton to announce himself at the top table.

He has achieved victories in the Mares’ Hurdle and County Hurdle at Cheltenham Festival before, but a win for Protektorat would raise Skelton’s game immeasurably. The bay gelding has an outside chance after recording a win in the Many Clouds Chase at Aintree in December, hammering the rest of the field by 25 lengths, including former Gold Cup winner Native River, after which he was put away for the Spring. A Plus Tard, Galvin and Minella Indo are a step up in class, but Skelton can at least be confident that his charge can compete with the best in the business, and he will be fresh after a midwinter break that has seen him prepared specifically for this moment.

The Gold Cup is not the only race targeted by Skelton in pursuit of a successful Cheltenham. There are other opportunities for Skelton to pick up significant scalps outside of the Gold Cup. Third Time Lucki has been a solid operator over the course of the campaign and is an intended runner in the Arkle Chase. He was beaten by the race favourite Edwardstone in his last outing at Warwick in the Kingmaker Novices’ Chase and was previously off the pace in another contest against his rival in the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown Park. However, Third Time Lucki does have two victories at Cheltenham Racecourse under his belt this term and merits a run in the Arkle Chase to upset the rest of the field.

Nube Negra finished just behind Put The Kettle On in the Champion Chase last season and will run again in the contest next week. The scale of the challenge has been increased by the presence of Shishkin and Energumene, who are expected to battle it out for the leading honours. Last year’s favourite Chacun Pour Soi is also present and will be out for redemption for Mullins. Skelton’s charge did beat a talented field in the Shloer Chase at Cheltenham in November, including last season’s Champion Chase winner, but was off the pace in his last race in the Tingle Creek Chase, finishing fourth. At odds of 14/1, he could be worth an outside chance given his record at the racecourse, but he will have to put in a sterling performance to defeat the hot favourites Shishkin and Energumene or hope for a mistake from both horses. However, in a race like the Champion Chase, one mistake is all it needs to lose the advantage. A foot perfect round could yet be enough to land the odds.

Skelton is well placed to make an impact at Cheltenham Festival, but he will need the rub of the green and brilliant displays from his charges to announce his arrival among the elite of the sport.

Three Grand National contenders to have graced the Stratford turf

Posted on by Peter McNeile

The Grand National is the richest jumps race in the sport and it is a race which generates a huge audience on television every year. It is always great to see some horses line up who have featured at Stratford earlier in their careers. Stratford’s tight circuit doesn’t hold many similarities to Aintree, but our races take sometimes as much winning!

More often than not, Britain’s smaller courses play a role as nurseries to the stars of tomorrow, be they horses, riders or indeed trainers. Where we cannot match big courses with handsome prizes, our fixtures at the start and end of our season give perfect opportunities for trainers seeking good ground and a fair race to introduce a newcomer, or find an appropriate handicap rating.

Here is a look at three horses from this past few seasons’ entries who have impressed at Stratford. 

Lord Du Mesnil

Last season’s Grand National Trial winner Lord Du Mesnil is set for his second shot at the Aintree feature in 2022. He was pulled up in last year’s contest which was won by Irish horse Minella Times.

Richard Hobson’s chaser finished second at Stratford in the 2019 J.H. Rowe Memorial Handicap Chase, coming home just a neck by the winner De Forgotten. The French-bred horse was just six years old at the time and had little experience over fences, now corrected 3 years on.

Prior to his next shot at the Grand National, Lord Du Mesnil is expected to line up in the Cross Country Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. He is one of the leading Cheltenham Festival 2022 tips for that race which has been dominated in recent years by Tiger Roll, and which may yet prove that horse’s swansong.

Cloth Cap

Jonjo O’Neill’s gelding Cloth Cap was in excellent form last season heading into the Grand National. He recorded back-to-back victories in major races at Newbury and Kelso. Unfortunately for connections, he did not complete the course at Aintree. Of course, his well-known and likeable owner, Trveor Hemmings, is no longer with us to enjoy his spin around Aintree this April, but the season has already given him reason to smile down from above after Cloudy Glen won the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury last December.

Those who visited Stratford’s early November meeting in 2018 will have seen Cloth Cap prevail in the J.H. Rowe Memorial Handicap Chase. It was an eye-catching performance from the horse who was having just his second appearance over fences. 

O’Neill often uses Stratford as a venue to send some of his novice chasers as they look to get experience over bigger obstacles. His Grand National contender has a lot of ability so more can be expected from him on his return to Liverpool.

Itchy Feet

Itchy Feet goes into the Grand National this year with strong claims. He made a strong impression at Stratford when he broke his maiden here on just his second career appearance in a bumper.

Olly Murphy’s runner blew his rivals away by 14 lengths. He was a long way clear of the field with two furlongs to go. It was clear that day that this horse was going to be lining up in some big races later in his career.

Itchy Feet later went on to become a Grade One winner as he landed the Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown in 2020. His performances since then have been mixed, but he has some good form this season behind Allmankind and Bravemansgame who is, of course, a leading fancy for Novice honours at Cheltenham next week.

Murphy has yet to win the Grand National, but with Itchy Feet, he goes into the race this year with a great chance of lifting the trophy for the first time in his career.

Hopefully, all three of the above horses run a big race at Aintree, which will mean regular racegoers at Stratford will have seen a Grand National winner at our Midlands racecourse. But keep looking… Tucked away in our calendar starting next Monday might be a horse about which you could say in the future, “I saw his first run at Stratford”.

White is the new orange: horse safety at the heart of colour changes

Posted on by Peter McNeile

In preparation for a busy new season at Stratford, the racecourse is pleased to be at the forefront of improvements in horse welfare, following the implementation of an exhaustive research project by the University of Exeter, in partnership with the sport’s governing body, the British Horseracing Authority.

From the opening fixture on Monday March 14, take-off boards and fence and hurdle sight boards will change in colour from fluorescent orange to white. The research, concluded in 2020, found that horses have reduced colour vision compared to humans, seeing colours along a continuous range from blue to yellow, and therefore cannot distinguish between many of the colours that humans see as red, orange, and green. What originally appeared to be an excellent idea to paint the take-off boards bright orange has in reality been of little help to the horse.

The research was carried out at 11 racecourses in a variety of different lighting conditions between February 2017 – 2018, and included trials with horses at training grounds too. Fence colour significantly affected the way a horse jumped the fence with regards to its takeoff and landing distances, and the angle of takeoff that a horse made during a jump. The colour of the fences plays a role in both the shape that the horses made whilst jumping a fence and the total distance jumped. 

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, trainer Richard Phillips reported, “To start with we were slightly dubious about the whole concept but the evidence was quite striking. To both the riders and those on the ground the horses seemed to jump the obstacles with white rails more fluently and with more precision than they did the orange obstacles.” 

Over the space of a 12 month period, equine casualty records over the last five years have consistently indicated an annual average of 176 fatalities in racing at large, predominantly, but not exclusively, due to jumping errors. BHA has successfully reduced faller rates through a combination of means, including managing field sizes, altering distances or starts to accommodate the distance to the first obstacle and through better monitoring of licensed personnel. There is no zero option here in a sport as fast and unpredictable as Jump racing, but the Exeter University research maintains a downward momentum on injury rates through a remorseless focus on safety, without sanitizing the sport.

The research, overseen by BHA’s Senior Course Inspector Richard Linley, who has extended experience of race-riding in a highly successful career as first jockey to the Rimells, has some relevance to other equestrian sport too.

One fall is a fall too many, but if this seemingly innocuous change reduces risk without diminishing the spectacle, then the sport and all its followers are winners.

School Report 2021: must do better…. but can British trainers improve at the Cheltenham Festival in 2022?

Posted on by Peter McNeile
The William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Carine06

It is fair to say the 2021 Cheltenham Festival was a dominant week for the Irish, with UK runners disappointing across the board. Of the 28 races, just five were won by horses trained in the UK, which led to a lot of questions being asked about the quality of UK racing at the moment, and the ability of our trainers to get their best horses ready for the big day. Even now, our premier mid season staying chase has been won by a Mullins – trained horse, so our problems haven’t gone away.

The countdown to 2022 is on, and the big question hanging over the Festival surrounds how well the UK runners can compete this time around, and are they in for another drubbing?

If you look at the odds ahead of Cheltenham, then you will see a number of races where Irish horses are amongst the favourites, but even with that, it would be a stretch to say they are capable of performing at the same level as last season again. As it stands, Ireland is at 1/6 and the UK 6/1 to take the Prestbury Cup, the inter country tally to see which side of the Irish Sea fares best over the four days. While the racing betting UK odds certainly favour Ireland, the hope is that the UK can move in the right direction and get double-figure victories on the board. 

For that to happen, the UK would essentially need three winners on two of the four days of the meeting, with two winners on the other two days, but who are the main contenders?

The British best hopes for the 2022 Festival

The Supreme Novices’ Hurdle kicks off the Festival, a race that often goes to Ireland, but hopes are high in the UK this season. Henderson – trained Constitution Hill and Jonbon lead the market, after the recent Tolworth Hurdle victory of Constitution Hill, a race that he won by 12 lengths.

On the second day of the meeting, all UK eyes will be on one runner and that is Shishkin, a horse that is likely to turn up as one of the UK bankers of the week, assuming preparations go well. He won the Arkle Chase in great style last season and would love to follow that up by taking the premier two-mile chase event this season.

On Thursday, the most interesting runner on the whole card is more than likely going to be Champ. A Gold Cup hopeful last season, he was expected to go down that route again this season, but an impressive win over hurdles on seasonal debut has seen trainer Nicky Henderson open up a new option in the Stayers Hurdle.

The meeting rounds off on Friday and the headline race on that day is of course the Gold Cup. This is a race dominated by Irish runners, with the likes of Minella Indo, A Plus Tard, Galvin and Al Boum Photo all fancied to go well.

From a UK point of view, Protektorat, Chantry House and Champ, if he doesn’t run on Thursday, lead the way, but so far, all of them are outsiders in the race.

The disappointing total of five winners last season should not be repeated, but the strength of Irish racing right now means that low double figures is the best that the UK can hope for in 2022.

If you’re already salivating at the thought of the sport’s 4 day bonanza, consider also adding the Monday of that week here at Stratford. Our competitive card gives riders and trainers a pipe-opener to get in the winning mood before the tense moments of the subsequent four days.

Does Skelton have a Gold Cup winner in Protektorat?

Posted on by Peter McNeile

All trainers dream of winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but for Dan Skelton that dream could soon be a reality due to the excellence of Protektorat on the track in the 2021/22 campaign. The bay gelding had a solid end to the previous campaign, and Skelton would have been more hopeful than expectant of his charge taking the next step in his development.

However, he has put in two outstanding performances at the start of the campaign to push his case to be a leading contender for the Gold Cup in March. If you’re one to bet on horse racing, you’ll probably be aware that Protektorat’s 16/1 odds have plummeted since the start of the season when he was considered a rank outsider for the crown. A quick look at the racing tips today will also tell you that Irish contender A Plus Tard is the favourite for the Gold Cup, and rightly so given his performance at the Betfair Chase.

Leading contenders have been beaten in this prestigious race before and will be again. There will be an opportunity for Protektorat to prove his quality, although his previous appearance at Cheltenham Festival was disappointing, to say the least. In 2020, he competed in the Coral Cup and was backed at decent odds to take that competitive handicap back to Alcester. Harry Skelton took the reins, but could not get a tune out of the bay gelding at the business end of the race and faded from contention to finish 13th.

Protektorat is a much stronger competitor now than two years ago due to the six-year-old’s natural development. He ended the last campaign with a victory at the Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree. The French – bred was on point on his return to the track following wind surgery. He beat The Shunter toe win by 3 3/4 lengths, ending his season on the front foot and with momentum to take into the new campaign.

It was evident that Protektorat had taken a stride forward as he competed in the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham. Even though the bay gelding made a mistake at the fifth fence that would have normally derailed his race, Harry Skelton kept the horse on track and he responded with a brilliant effort, an effort that almost allowed him to close down Midnight Shadow, just losing out by three-quarters of a length.

Despite the Cheltenham defeat, Dan Skelton was optimistic that Protektorat was finding his peak form and his judgement was borne out in the Many Clouds Chase at Aintree. The French – bred was one of the top contenders alongside Native River from the in-form Tizzard yard. However, he would blow away the competition with a dominant performance, the best of his career, to win by 25 lengths with Bridget Andrews in the saddle.

Protektorat will need to produce his A game to win the Gold Cup. Dan Skelton will be hopeful that the French – bred has inherited the attributes of his famous owner Sir Alex Ferguson and his winning mentality for the grand occasion. The talent is there, but he will require a flawless effort to match the best in the sport come March.

Will Shan Blue bounce back from Charlie Hall tumble?

Posted on by Peter McNeile

Dan Skelton is training a horse of magnificent calibre in the form of Shan Blue. The potential of the bay gelding is limitless, and there is a big race in him somewhere – and soon. Saturday’s Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby could have been the start of a very productive campaign for Shan Blue along with Harry and Dan Skelton, were it not for that somersault at the third last with the race won.

The horse put down a dominating performance at Wetherby as he stormed 20 lengths clear of a field stacked with talent. All he had to do was clear the remaining fences and a signature win would have belonged to the Skeltons and owner Colm Donlon. However, Shan Blue had a crashing fall three fences from the end of the race when unchallenged, spurning a golden chance of victory. Nicky Henderson’s Fusil Raffles capitalised on his misfortune to win the contest.

Despite the setback, there should be high excitement about the future of Shan Blue in the 2021/22 National Hunt season. If you check today’s racing results you will no doubt see a high-profile horse that failed to perform, but it is the nature of the sport that mistakes and misfires occur on a daily basis even for the best of competitors. There’s a reason it’s called Jump racing: you have to jump round to win. Shan Blue is still backable as a solid contender for the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham Festival in 2022, although Dan Skelton may opt to place his charge elsewhere and even the Gold Cup is a possibility.

The bay gelding was outstanding in the early stages of last term, reeling off three victories on the bounce, including a brilliant run at the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase before suffering a defeat at Sandown Park. The presence of Envoi Allen was supposed to leave his hopes in the Marsh Novices’ Chase as a write-off. However, after the favourite fell after the third fence, the race was blown wide open.

Shan Blue failed to rise to the occasion amid the talent of Chantry House, while he was forced to settle for fifth place behind the eventual winner along with Fusil Raffles, Asterion Forlonge, and Chatham Street Lad. The seven-year-old should have had the quality to compete for the middle distance novices crown, but was off the pace when it mattered most.

Chantry House would haunt the Skeltons and Shan Blue once more to end the campaign. The bay gelding was competitive for a time in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase at Aintree, but once Chantry House found his rhythm, he pulled away from Shan Blue and stormed to a dominant 32l victory. Given the end to the last campaign and the disappointment to start the new one, there might be question marks over Shan Blue. He has been found wanting at Grade I level. However, he remains a quality competitor and may need only one clean and flawless ride to regain his peak form.

Dan Skelton should be pressing his charge forward in the major races on the National Hunt calendar before Cheltenham 2022 and will not be deterred by the fear of failure. The example of Envoi Allen’s fall at the Marsh Novices’ Chase and Shan Blue’s own disappointment at the Charlie Hall Chase is evidence that anything can happen in the top races. Envoi Allen redeemed himself spectacularly at Down Royal on Saturday.

Skelton and Shan Blue just need the dice to fall in their favour and capitalise on the opportunity of a big prize for this exciting star of the future.

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