Dan Skelton has momentum right now, more than any other trainer in the country. And now he wants it for Grey Dawning too.
His star staying chaser is heading to Haydock on Saturday for the Betfair Chase, as he did last year. But in deep, rain-sodden ground, the grey was unable to repel the renewed challenge of Royale Pagaille after the final fence of the 2024 renewal.
He returned to the second place spot a mud-splattered, exhausted horse, and it meant plans for the rest of the campaign had to be ripped up.
Instead of bouncing out of Haydock as a Grade One winner, he needed minding. Connections did roll the dice in the King George but he was pulled-up after a bad mistake at the first and it wasn't until the two races in the spring, at Kelso and Aintree, when the spark returned.
“Momentum is what we’re looking for," says Skelton. "Getting beat last year left us with nowhere to go. I knew Kempton wasn’t really going to suit him going right-handed but you kind of feel you have to do something.
“Actually, as daft as it sounds, Kempton didn’t do him any harm long term as it got him back out there and he didn’t have a hard race, because he couldn’t get a hard race. Then we got the spring right. Hopefully the season will look very different this year and I’d love to start with that Grade One. It feels like there’s a little unfinished business with him in that race and I’d dearly love to win it for Robert and Leslie Kirkland.
"We're going up there with no excuses. It certainly wasn’t fitness that got him beat last year. He was fit and he’s fit again now. He’s at the peak of his life in terms of age and hopefully it's all enough.
“Once that happened last year, I wouldn’t say it automatically felt like we had to put it all back together but we had to say, OK, where do we go now?
“You’re struggling to find a race because you haven’t had a win and the best races were always going to be Kelso and Aintree and ultimately we got the spring very right with him. OK, we got beat by Gaelic Warrior at Aintree but Patrick Mullins is telling everyone Gaelic Warrior will win the Gold Cup so maybe the Aintree run was a very good run.
"It was just hard that middle bit over what you do next? If you won on your debut it just makes life a lot easier because you don’t have to go looking. I don’t know what his season will look like this year after the Betfair, and I don’t want to be drawn into any of that yet either – but I’m just looking forward to it. We have him in very good shape."
And so is the stable; big-race wins at Cheltenham last week with L'Eeau Du Sud and Panic Attack show the target trainer has his sights in. Does that give him extra confidence for Haydock?
“It definitely helps. If you’re on a cold spell you guys are asking different questions then," he tells the media surrounding him on the Prestbury Park weighing room steps.
"I don’t know why they’ve hit form like they have. I said to Grace about ten days ago it just feels as if they’re just about to go. I don’t know why but sometimes it just feels like that and long may it continue.
"Obviously, we’ve got a busy run now up to Christmas and New Year and then the flu vaccines and then try to build up to here in March, and then Aintree. It feels like we’ve got them where we want them and the ones that need the plans, have the plans."
So what of this year's Betfair Chase? Royale Pagaille lies in wait again, with new challengers Handstands and Haiti Couleurs also likely to line up.
“We’ll be out there and be positive, we don’t need to make the running and I never want to take anything away from the winner last year, but I felt on the day conditions got us. I’m not belittling the winner in any way, shape or form, but I wouldn’t have minded ten millimetres of rain less," Skelton says.
"I have a lot of respect for him and for Haiti Couleurs and Handstands. We were in their position last year, the horse coming out of novices looking to step up and now they’re the horses looking to do that this year. I always feel it’s a hard thing to do to come out of novices and win at the first attempt, but if you have Grade One form, of course you can do it.
“I’ve a lot of respect for those two, a lot of respect for Venetia’s horse too."
Nothing being taken for granted. How can it be after last season? But Grey Dawning heads to the Betfair Chase looking to atone for his 2024 near-miss. And when the Skeltons take dead aim at any race...
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