Dan Skelton's L’Eau du Sud will bid to secure a poignant success in the Unibet Kingmaker Novices’ Chase at Warwick on Saturday.
The improving seven-year-old will sport the colours of his late part owner John Hales, who died aged 85 on January 30, when putting his unbeaten chasing record on the line in the Grade Two feature which Skelton claimed in 2021 with Allmankind.
Since switching to fences this season L’Eau du Sud has taken his form to new levels with three straight victories over the larger obstacles under Harry Skelton.
After making a winning chasing debut at Stratford, L’Eau du Sud has subsequently followed up that success in the Grade Two Arkle Trial at Cheltenham before bagging a breakthrough Grade One in the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase at Sandown Park in December.
And with chief market rival Sir Gino set to swerve the two-mile race Skelton is confident the grey, who is part owned by former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, can extend his winning sequence.
Skelton said: “Nicky (Henderson) is going to stay at home and go to Newbury with Sir Gino so we will stay at home and go to Warwick. Hopefully after a couple of home games we will then see both of them in the Arkle. Our lad is in good form and I haven’t got any negatives going into the race.
“I did ringfence this race after Sandown as with it being at Warwick I was mad keen to go there so it is nice that we can. He will be wearing John’s colours so it would be a poignant victory if we could get another one next to his name.
“He is a short price for Saturday and we will go there and give it our best. I’m sure he will be hard to beat.”
While the gelded son of Lord Du Sud’s success at Sandown last time out was visually not his most impressive display, Skelton feels that it was a glimpse of his true character.
Skelton added: “I thought he got a bit stuck in the ground at Sandown and the fact that it is a dry forecast here probably suits us as well. It was a scrappy old victory at Sandown Park, but it was a victory nonetheless. He just found a way to do it.
“I take great pride in them when they do that. When the going gets tough a lot of horses just lie down. When you get one that says ‘No, I’m not lying down I will do it anyway’ that is a great asset to have.”
And although L’Eau du Sud is odds-on for his next assignment with the race sponsor Skelton is taking nothing for granted having come close to toppling the mighty Jonbon at odds of 1/16 in the race back in 2023 with Calico.
He added: “Harry (Skelton) nearly nicked it aboard Calico against Jonbon when it was just the two of them in the race. I would have said there would have been some questions asked if Harry had somehow managed to stay in front.
“We won’t be going there complacent, and neither did the Jonbon team, but we put in a bit more of a fright than what they would have really wanted that day. Ultimately Jonbon has gone on to do what he has done so there wasn’t anything lost that day.
“At the end of the day it is sport and sometimes when you think you are going to win you don’t. If events conspire against us that is sport and if we get beat, we get beat.”
At the moment L’Eau du Sud currently sits third in the betting for next month’s My Pension Expert Arkle Challenge Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival behind Sir Gino and Majborough.
And while expecting both those horses to prove tough to topple in the Grade One test Skelton is more than happy to be sneaking his promising star into that race under the radar.
He added: “They are two Grade One winning juveniles that he will be taking on in the Arkle, and your man Sir Gino won an open Grade One over hurdles in the Fighting Fifth.
“I think that they have every right to be ahead of us in the betting in the Arkle as they are Grade One-winning hurdlers and we are not.
“We’ve done everything asked of us over fences and we have done it handsomely. I’m quite happy to slip under the radar a little bit and that doesn’t worry me one bit.
“We have got the experience at Cheltenham under our belt, which is a positive, but those two are going to be hard to beat in the Arkle, but let’s get through Saturday first.”
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