Dan Skelton: We are very excited to run a horse like this over hurdles for the first time
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Ladbrokes ambassador Dan Skelton has five runners at Aintree and one at Wincanton on Saturday, and the Warwickshire-based trainer gave us the lowdown on the prospects of them all.
We start with a very nice novice hurdler who won two bumpers last year. It goes without saying that we are very excited to run a horse like this over hurdles for the first time. He is bred to be a jumper and we can’t wait to get started.
The soft ground is absolutely perfect and we would expect him to go close. It doesn’t take imagination to work out that he would take high rank in our minds going into the season having won two bumpers.
We run Ashdown Lad back over hurdles. We are looking to get a run into him before he goes for either the Coral Trophy or the Becher Chase.
I think the run will do him the world of good even though he’s not really a hurdler. We have done lots of work with him, and he should just tighten up for this.
We run Hometown Hero over fences for the first time. He won last year under a great ride from Bridget at Market Rasen. We ran him in the EBF Final but it was just a run too many and it didn’t suit him on the day and sometimes that can happen over hurdles around Sandown.
He is in good form at home and I think he will go well. I think he will improve physically and potentially mentally for his first run over fences but I am happy and ready to get started.
He got round over these fences last year when finishing fifth. The slower ground will help him and he has a run under his belt when he came second at Fakenham last month. He is second a lot unfortunately.
However, he is a great horse around the yard, everyone absolutely loves him, and if he can win over these big fences it would be a great story.
Langer Dan takes the sometimes-difficult step into open company having been in handicaps. He must take on the winner of this race last year and he has to find 13lbs on ratings so that will be hard.
However, he is a progressive horse and his win at the Aintree festival last year was quite taking visually. He is in great form at home and this is always how we intended to start his season.
Quite a strange thing happened to Uhtred at Cheltenham last time. He tried to jump the crossing before turning in and put a leg back and almost slipped up. Harry thought he’d done something wrong and pulled him up quickly but it transpired that nothing was wrong, and we could get back out quickly.
One thing we did learn was that two-and-a-half miles is definitely better for him. This is a tough race though but worth 50 grand so we will give it a go because he has the numbers to be competitive.
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