The Skeltons unleashed another exciting young novice hurdling prospect in the shape of St James’s Finest at Chepstow.
He was sent off a 5/2 chance in division one of the LSL Racing 'National Hunt' Maiden Hurdle with Paul Nicholls’ Order Of Time the 1/2 favourite to make a winning hurdling debut himself.
However, he was keen in front through the race and was readily picked off by the five-year-old winner who landed a Windsor bumper on his final start of last season.
“It was very nice; he did everything nicely and went through the race really well. Dan was saying he made that ground look like it was good,” the winning rider told Sky Sports Racing.
“Sam was probably doing plenty on the front end, his horse was probably a bit fresh, but our lad settled really well and has a lot going for him. I was keen to keep a bit of company for as long as I could, but he was very good at the last."
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Dan Skelton added: “He’s pretty smart. The complexion of the race obviously suited us a little, but he still handled the ground best of all which I think has probably been the predominate factor there. But he did look good in a bumper last year at Windsor. I’m just very happy to see him jump nicely and I think he has a lot under the bonnet. I don’t think he’s ground dependent, and you wouldn’t want to subject a young horse to very soft ground all the time anyway.
“I might think about going to Sandown with him on Tingle Creek day, there’s a Listed novice hurdle there. I’d love the old Leamington Hurdle to still be there at Warwick but unfortunately that’s gone, but maybe we work towards something like the Grade Two at Cheltenham’s January meeting and that will tell us where we should be going. We’ll try him in some good races over hurdles – why not?"
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