What we learned on Sunday as Protektorat teed up repeat Ryanair Chase bid

Right way round for Djelo?

Dan Skelton had Berkshire Winter Million winners on day one and day two but saved the best for last as stable stalwart Protektorat bounded home by 23 lengths in the Fleur De Lys Chase to execute a well-hatched plan.

Most of us are occasionally guilty of casting these horses aside a little too prematurely, always on the lookout for the next best thing, but any faint hopes of the promising Grey Dawning dropping back in trip and going for this year’s Ryanair Chase might just have gone up in smoke after his classy stablemate - the reigning Ryanair champ no less - looked right back to his best on Sunday.

The Skeltons are switched on enough to know that the Cheltenham Festival isn’t typically a place for old bones, and the likes of Fact To File, Spillane’s Tower or Gaelic Warrior would no doubt be favoured over their 10-year-old if lining up in March, but Protektorat has been brought along steadily with the intention of peaking at Windsor and Cheltenham this time around and it’s obviously so far so good on that front.

He'll need it soft and he’ll need to be ridden aggressively again, but Protektorat isn’t one to be underestimating wherever he goes for the rest of the campaign - it might just be his last season at the top table and he’s a horse that evidently thrives on his work and competitive action.

Heavily-backed runner-up Djelo (5/4 favourite in the end) was a tad disappointing on the face of it but going back the other way around could be a help, his last two wins having been achieved on right-handed tracks, and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Venetia Williams cracked on and tried him back in Grade 1 company soon enough - possibly in the Ascot Chase next month if he takes the Windsor exertions well enough. He's out to 25s for the Ryanair in places although that suddenly looks a massive ask.

The horse I felt a bit sorry for was the previously unbeaten Indiana Dream, who lacked a run since December 2023 and just had a very slim chance in such competitive company given his sheer dearth of experience.

He attracted support on course, oddly, but was on the back foot from an early stage following some poor jumping and deserves another chance for the O’Neills in cooler waters if that can be arranged, given his BHA mark of 152 looks a pretty stiff one.

Henderson has longer-term project too

Jonbon, Lulamba and Jingko Blue delivered for Nicky Henderson in high-profile events at the three-day meeting, but Khrisma isn’t one to be giving up on in a hurry and she’ll be winning races for Seven Barrows at some point.

Beaten into third by Jubilee Alpha in Sunday’s opening Fitzdares Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, she was getting 8lb from Paul Nicholls’ horse, who had a mark of 128, so hasn’t run to a big rating by any means but there’s almost certainly more to come.

Henderson spoke pre-race on Sky Sports Racing about concerns regarding the holding ground and the betting left the distinct impression it was a fact-finding mission with the French import. Keen early on in the hood, she jumped well enough until a mistake at a crucial moment two-out and wasn’t unduly punished by Nico de Boinville from that point on.

Khrisma was nudged out to 25/1 for the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham but there’s plenty of time to get more jumping experience into her before then and she’s worth monitoring to say the least as this effort certainly wasn’t as bad as it might look on paper.

WATCH: Jubilee Alpha wins from Bluey and the eyecatcher Khrisma

Pinch of salt required

Perhaps they'll be kind and keep it real, but I suspect Matata is facing a hammering from the official assessors for his runaway 10-length win over last year’s Grand Annual winner Unexpected Party in the Fitzdares Great Park Handicap Chase. They were a pretty rag-tag bunch in behind, though, and it surely can’t be form to be treating too seriously.

When Matata ran out in a Wincanton novice hurdle at the start of 2023, I never for a second thought he might one day be featuring in the same breath as one of the best horses ever to have competed in the same ownership but that’s where we’re at, with Nigel Twiston-Davies suggesting his charge could now be on target for the Champion Chase unless Willie Mullins, Simon Munir and Isaac Souede have other ideas with the currently sidelined El Fabiolo.

Admittedly, it must have been highly encouraging to see J J Slevin click with the quirky Matata at the first time of asking, but I’m far from convinced that he’ll be among Jonbon’s genuine dangers come the middle of March.

This race just fell apart didn't it?

The horse to take from it could be one of the Skelton trio - Etalon. He took a bit of a bit of a wobble in the market, having been strong overnight, and then promptly crashed out at the seventh fence, but he was Harry Skelton's pick of the three and he'll prove to be very well handicapped in the spring if they can get him back to the sort of form he was showing in novice company early last term. The Grand Annual and Red Rum at Aintree will already be circled in the diary. They do love a plan, the Skeltons.

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