Dan Skelton’s runners go at Wincanton and Sandown this weekend
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New Year’s Day was great for us with Aux Ptits Soins winning. He’s heading to the Stayers’ Hurdle now. In terms of making resolutions, personally I’d like to drop a lot of weight and professionally I want to lose fewer races!
On Saturday, Harry Skelton goes to Sandown for us. He rides Yorkist in a four runner race (12.45).
I think he bounced the other day. He ran really nicely and won at Aintree and he is in good form overall.
There are a couple of others in the race in good form as well so it’s a competitive little heat. I’d like to think my one will run well and I do think the track will suit him.
We bite off a big piece of the cake with Idee De Garde in the feature race, the Grade 1 Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle (2.25).
It’s his second run over hurdles. I was very happy with him at Newcastle against a good horse of Nicky Henderson’s. We are going into this race with open eyes, we know how hard it is going to be but we do like this horse and it will be an education for him.
We’d like to think that we can go for a maiden hurdle at any point and look to some of the nicer races in the future. We are going for it here, we know what we are taking on and it will be very difficult.
As long as he gets a nice clear round and learns from it, we’ll be happy. It’s a big building block for him.
Bridget Andrews goes to Wincanton for us, where she rides Value At Risk first (3.15).
The ground has held out for him. He ran OK the last day but I think there is more to come. He seemed to come alive in the spring but there’ll be no excuse for him tomorrow.
Finally we have Mabela in a Maiden Hurdle (3.50). I don’t think she is quite flying at the moment for whatever reason. She’s doing alright at home but she’s just not there on the track.
This type of race on a flat track is perfect for her in theory so we want to see if there’s any improvement.
You can forgive any horse for an average run at Fakenham because it’s a fast track. This should be more to her liking and hopefully we can put a good run on the board.
Dan
