Dan Skelton Stable Tour 2024/25 - Key quotes from Champion Trainer contender

He had a great year last year. We ran him at Aintree, but he was a little bit over the top, but he gained a little more experience from that and there was no harm done from that. He will start this year in the Charlie Hall and, hopefully, go for the Betfair Chase and then we will see. Those are the two earlier season targets, and we have Gold Cup aspirations but how we fare against the opposition in those two races will tell us. He is a growing up and getting stronger and he has won over three miles plus at Warwick, but we have to see how gets on taking a big step up in grade.

He had a great year last year and won a second Coral Cup and we moved him up to Graded level and he acquitted himself very well. Handicaps are now out of the question, and he is going to start in the West Yorkshire Hurdle at Wetherby and then go from there. We are hoping to make him into a Stayers’ Hurdle horse. Everyone thinks I am messing around when I say he is better in the spring but let us just see how it shows this year. He always does well over the summer, and we will see where we are with him after Wetherby.

He has obviously done brilliantly for us over the seasons and last year was his best year when he won the Ryanair Chase. We aim to go back there in the spring and hopefully, there will be plenty to be picked up before then. We will start off in the Old Roan and then decide where to go after that, but he wants two and a half miles. We may go up to three miles at some point but for the moment we will stick to two and a half.

He won his bumper over two miles at Huntingdon, and I think we will stick to that trip for the minute. He loves to jump, and he is a very powerful horse. He could be a good novice hurdler.

He is a full brother to Nube Negra and he is a nice horse and he jumped well at Stratford. He had never raced before so it was very encouraging.

She won a listed bumpers last season, and she is entered at Chepstow on Friday. I think as she goes up in trip the further the better for her.

She is very good and is two from two including a listed bumper. We like what we see from her, and she will probably start at Worcester on October 23. We will step her up from there, but she is good, and we are hoping she could be very good.

He goes to Chepstow on Saturday and is a winner of his only point-to-point who has been showing up nicely.

He won a listed bumper at Newbury, and he is a big strong powerful horse. He will definitely start over two miles, but he will step up in trip. He surprised us with how well he goes through a race, and he doesn’t need to go beyond two miles just yet. He is pretty smart.

He quickened up very well at Market Rasen and we might start over hurdles with him at the Charlie Hall meeting, but he will step up in trip at some point. I think he could be very good.

He is in a similar mould to Major Fortune, and he did win at Ayr. He is progressive and is getting stronger and becoming more professional. I am delighted with the progression, and I think he can be contesting the better class three-mile handicap hurdles. Both him and Major Fortune will both make novice chasers in time.

She was third in a Grade 1 at Aintree on her last run of the season, and she loves soft ground. She gets the mares’ allowance if we went in novice chases, but we will go the mares’ route. She has a great attitude, and she could be a high-class mare over fences.

He is a great horse and won for times for us last year and took us all by surprise. I took him to Bangor first time out as his owners live nearby and we weren’t expecting a lot and just wanted to see how he got on, but he was brilliant. He then went onto win a £100,000 race and went onto Aintree and won. What a year he had, and he will possibly run at Cheltenham in October or at Aintree the day after. Then he will go for the long-distance handicap hurdle at Haydock on Betfair Chase Day then we will make a plan.

He is a new one and he came to us from France and has winning form there. He is definitely a chaser for the future, and he is a smart horse and definitely one to follow. He is a novice over hurdles until December 1 and he could go to Cheltenham, but he is more likely to go the following week in a novice hurdle at Wetherby.

She is a good mare, and she obviously won at Aintree for us. She will targeted at all the good mares’ races and head to Aintree in the spring. I never got a clear run with her last year, and she will probably start at Kempton on October 20 in a valuable two-mile hurdle and then she will go to Wetherby or Ascot for the Ascot Hurdle, it’s worth £100,000. She is going to get a lot of entries and will, hopefully, have a great year.

He got on a roll last year and won five and then got chinned on his last run of the season up at Ayr. I think this horse will be better again this year, he is a very smooth traveller. He could be another one for that long-distance handicap hurdle at Haydock and is definitely going the right way.

We have been waiting to go chasing with him and he was second in the Betfair Hurdle and second in the County Hurdle last year. He has good handicap hurdle form and hopefully he can be a better chaser than he was a hurdler. His jumping at home has been good and we now have to see the same on the track.

She is a great mare, and she has won graded races for us. She goes novice chasing now and her jumping has been good. She will start over fences in a mares’ novices’ chase at Worcester on October 16 and we have graded ambitions for her. Her form in hurdles she can race at that level. Hopefully, she will have a very productive year in novice chases.

I feel that Heltenham is a very progressive horse, and I was very frustrated when he got beat at Kempton and I ran him a week later in a £100,000 race at Newbury and he won. Newbury is much more his track than Kempton. He will start at Wetherby on November 1 in a Listed two and a half mile handicap chase and then he will go to Newbury. We will make further plans afterwards but those are the first two races on his agenda.

He didn’t have a great year last year, but it was after having surgery in the summer. Now I have seen him this year I think he may have been getting over all of that and I am happy with him at the moment. He will probably start at Cheltenham on October 26, and we will consider where to go after that. The year before last when he won the Coral Gold Cup was a great year and I still think there is unfinished business with this horse. He shows up well at home and he has a great attitude. I think there are still good races to be won with him.

He sort of skidded when landing in the Coral Gold Cup last year and had a small injury in a hock. He is over all that now and I am really happy with how he looks and how he is going. He is going to Wetherby on November 1 and then we will give the Coral Gold Cup another go. There is a lot of unfinished business with that horse.

He won at the Festival last year and it was great to see him achieve something like that. He has always been a highly promising horse, and everything fell right for him on that day over two miles. We will campaign him in similar races this season and probably start him off at Cheltenham on October 25 if the ground is acceptable and play our season as it comes. There is a theory that someone has to follow Jonbon around in these graded races and we will think if that is us and whether we can be a placed horse in those events. I wouldn’t say he was going to beat Jonbon but there is good prize money available, and we will think about it.

He is a nice horse by Doyen he was second in a point-to-point to a very good horse, Keops Des Bordes, that we also have now. He is another who has been entered in the bumper at Chepstow on Saturday.

He will be out later in the year and is big strong horse with a very bright future. He will start off in a bumper somewhere.