A typically shrewd bit of placing from Dan Skelton saw him put the seal on his record-breaking season as Grey Dawning battled hard to land the Grade 1 JCB Melling Chase at Aintree on Friday.
After hitting the crossbar on day one with Protektorat and The New Lion, Skelton landed the top-level glory he so craves thanks to his stable star dropping in trip, but he had to dig deep to see off the relentless pursuit of Solness.
Joseph O’Brien’s horse put up a huge performance in defeat, rallying to the cause once headed by Grey Dawning and pushing the nine-year-old to within a neck at the line.
The winner showed tenacity to get over the line in front, though, especially considering it’s just four weeks since his fourth place in a gruelling Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup.
That was his biggest target for the season, a season in which Skelton will win the trainers' title for the first time after banking over £4,000,000 in prize-money, but he simply couldn’t live with Gaelic Warrior and company in the Blue Riband, as his trainer admitted afterwards in Liverpool.
After arranging the yellow JCB winner’s rug onto his pride and joy and posing for pictures with brother Harry, who gave the victorious horse a super ride, he was obviously delighted with how his Melling plan came together.
“I was always going to come to this,” Skelton said, rebuffing suggestions the Grade 1 Racing Welfare Bowl was ever under consideration. “Do something slightly different. What we were doing we doing well, but we weren’t quite winning so we had to change things.
WATCH: Grey Dawning wins the JCB Melling Chase
Unlimited Replays
of all UK and Irish races with our Race Replays
Discover Sporting Life Plus Benefits
“Sometimes Cheltenham leaves a mark and sometimes it doesn’t, you don’t know which ones because it’s so hard.
“He’s come out on the right side of it today and we’re very proud of him.
“We had him in Gold Cup form and we couldn’t win a Gold Cup. We jumped two out in second and we couldn’t quite win a Gold Cup.
“But we then had to start boxing clever and we felt it was the right thing to do to drop him back in trip.
“The cheekpieces aren’t a necessary thing, he’s not ungenuine or anything like that, but if you drop him back in trip you might as well have them and not need them than need them and not have them.
“We felt he’d see out the trip which he really needed to, two real good horses had a right good go. All credit to Solness, out in front the whole way like that, what a horse to put up a run like that.
“It’s a great outcome. Phenomenal owner [Mr Robert Kirkland], he’s been through the mill, unfortunately his wife died a couple of weeks ago. He’s a very patient man.
“He’s been a great horse, he knows how to dance the big dances now. He made two uncharacteristic mistakes in the Gold Cup, I don’t know why.
“I’m doing my job and it’s nice to win.”
Solness goes down fighting
Solness made this a great race to watch and jockey JJ Slevin was full of praise for the runner-up’s attitude.
He said: “It was a great run. We know he is a very good horse, and we gave it our best shot and he has run very well.
“He kept fighting, but Grey Dawning is a classy horse on his day and we gave it a good rattle so there are no excuses.
“Grey Dawning kept on fighting, but we didn’t stop either, but he just had that little kick to get by us when it mattered most.”
Ryanair Chase winner Heart Wood was only third, with Joe Tizzard’s JPR One fourth.
Brendan Powell, JPR One’s jockey, said: “It was a good solid run. He jumped and travelled well. He has had a long old season, but he just got a bit tired from the back of two out, but he rarely runs a bad race.
“He had a hard race at Cheltenham, but we have actually finished closer to Heart Wood today. He beat us a good way at Cheltenham, so it was good to see him get closer to that rival today.”
Some horses just come out of Cheltenham better than others. Grey Dawning came out of the Festival really well and his trainer’s instinct helped him to more Grade 1 glory.
Randox Grand National features and previews
- Horse-by-horse guide to the final field
- Punting Pointers: Our Grand National shortlist
- How to pick the Grand National winner and how different is the race now?
- The best Grand National performances on Timeform ratings
- Grand National fences: How they've shaped the race
- JockeyBox: Willie and Patrick Mullins reflections
- Simon Holt: The art of commentating on the National
- The remarkable story of Spanish Steps
- John Ingles: Remembering Red Marauder's remarkable win in the mud
- Alex Hammond Grand National Blog
- Patrick Mullins: National outsider 'catches the eye'
- Who are the main British hopes?
- 2026 Grand National preview podcast
- Dan Skelton: My Aintree squad
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
