Raitera is a name unlikely to ring too many bells, but she could end up playing an important part in Dan Skelton’s push to be champion trainer for the first time.
As a broodmare, she’s the dam of three horses in training at Lodge Hill, two of whom have already contributed winning prize money for the yard this season, while the earnings potential of the third could be crucial for his stable’s title bid. More on those shortly, but what about Raitera?
Foaled in France in 2005, Raitera is a daughter of the Aga Khan’s Prix Ganay winner Astarabad whose best jumper in Britain was Whisper, trained by Nicky Henderson to win the Coral Cup and two Liverpool Hurdles and who was later top-class over fences, narrowly beaten in both the RSA Novices’ Chase and the former Hennessy Gold Cup. In France, Astarabad produced top-class hurdler Questarabad, winner of the Grande Course de Haies in 2009.
While Raitera never ran, she’s a half-sister to several winners, with two in particular worth a mention. One was Golden Silver who may not figure among the very best two-mile chasers that Willie Mullins has trained but had top-class form, as well as being tough and consistent. He didn’t show his true form in three runs at the Cheltenham Festival, running his best race there when fourth to Sizing Europe in an all-Irish finish to the 2011 Queen Mother Champion Chase. But in Ireland his important wins included the Irish Arkle, the Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase, the Champion Chase at Punchestown and two editions of the Hilly Way Chase.
Despite coming from a jumping family and being trained by Francois Doumen, Golden Silver’s brother Diamond Boy raced exclusively on the Flat where he was a smart stayer, gaining his biggest win in a listed race at Saint-Cloud. But kept as an entire, he has made an important contribution to jumping as a sire, producing the likes of L’Homme Presse, last season’s dual Grade 1 novice chase winner Impaire Et Passe and this year’s Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris winner Diamond Carl.
Raitera was sold at Deauville as a yearling in 2006 for €25,000 before either Diamond Boy or Golden Silver had appeared on the scene. That purchase by Highflyer Bloodstock was on behalf of the well-established Worcestershire jumps breeders Robert and Jackie Chugg, family friends of the Skeltons and whose Little Lodge Farm is not far from the Skeltons’ base just over the Warwickshire border.
Sadly, Robert Chugg, who as a leading amateur rider had partnered hunter chaser Bright Willow to success at the Cheltenham Festival and in the Foxhunters’ Chase at Aintree, passed away shortly after Raitera’s sixth foal, the mare Kateira, made an impressive winning debut in a bumper at Huntingdon in February 2022 (replay below), carrying the colours of joint-owners Little Lodge Farm and Dan Skelton.
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Kateira has gone on to win six races over hurdles to date and has shown useful form, including when beating Jango Baie in a premier handicap at Aintree in 2024, with her latest success coming when beating an out-of-sorts Golden Ace in a match for the listed Mares’ Hurdle at Wetherby last month. However, she disappointed in a similar event at Doncaster last weekend.
Raitera had already produced three winners before Kateira, including her first foal Blairs Cove (by Presenting) who won four races for Skelton, showing fairly useful form over both hurdles and fences. Better though was his full brother and Raitera’s next foal El Presente who made into a smart chaser in the 2020/21 season for Kim Bailey, winning four times, notably the Badger Beers at Wincanton, as well as finishing a close fourth in the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown.
But it was a repeat of the mating that produced Kateira, with Raitera visiting Kayf Tara again two years later, that has really paid dividends. Of course, when The New Lion was sent by his breeders to the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale in 2019 as an unnamed foal, he could have ended up anywhere depending on who bought him. But having been purchased by Kate Rudd for €45,000, he too finished up in training with Skelton, originally in the ownership of Darren and Annaley Yates.
Like his elder sister, The New Lion got his career off to a winning start in a bumper, in his case at Market Rasen in April 2024. The following season, The New Lion made considerable progress to win all four of his hurdles, notably the Challow at Newbury and the Turners at the Festival (replay below). Between those two wins he was the subject of probably the season’s highest profile change of ownership when bought privately by JP McManus.
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Discover Sporting Life Plus BenefitsThe strong-travelling The New Lion had shown connections enough for them to believe they had a Champion Hurdle contender on their hands, and while The New Lion lost his unbeaten record when falling heavily two out in last month’s Fighting Fifth Hurdle, he arguably had the measure of eventual winner Golden Ace at the time. Being left in front by the earlier fall of Constitution Hill might not have suited The New Lion at Newcastle but he did show that he has the necessary speed for a top contest over two miles. Reportedly none the worse for his fall, he’s likely to get the chance to prove that again in the International Hurdle on Festival Trials Day at Cheltenham in January.
Meanwhile, Raitera’s latest foal to reach the track has been making great strides over fences for the Skeltons in recent months. Chuggy showed just modest form in three runs over hurdles last season so at the age of five the son of Walk In The Park has made an early switch to chasing. Starting out from a BHA mark of just 100, he has run up a hat-trick in handicaps at Uttoxeter and Warwick, with his second win at the latter track earlier this month seeing him win easily by a dozen lengths with a bold round of jumping from the front, showing useful form.
Carrying the colours of Simon and Lisa Hobson who also owned Raitera’s first foal Blairs Cove, Chuggy looks set to keep improving and was highlighted in Graeme North’s Watch And Learn column last week.
But Raitera’s broodmare record doesn’t end there. Since Chuggy, she has produced a trio of fillies who will no doubt be worth looking out for in future should they reach the track. Celenne (by Masterstroke) will shortly turn five, with younger fillies Kiara Gold (by Constitution Hill’s late sire Blue Bresil, foaled in 2023) and Naithera (by Nathaniel, foaled in 2024) following on.
Another of Raitera’s daughters, La Pinede (also by Presenting), ended up in France, and while she was unsuccessful in three starts over hurdles there, she has made a good start to her own broodmare career. Among her winners is Tahaa who won her only start over hurdles in France before joining Joseph O’Brien to race in the Robcour colours. She was pitched into a Grade 2 novice for mares on her first start over fences at Cork recently for her Irish debut and was in the process of showing some promise when falling two out. There should be easier tasks ahead of her.
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