Dan Skelton: Midnight River in the mix for Gold Cup success
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Ladbrokes ambassador Dan Skelton has one runner on Friday but nine at Cheltenham, Wetherby and Uttoxeter on Saturday when Midnight River is in the hunt for Gold Cup glory.
Friday
He is our only runner at Cheltenham today and he runs in a pretty deep novices’ hurdle here. However, he is similarly rated to a lot of these and has a run under his belt at Chepstow.
I think he will have come on a bit for that run and this will tell us where we go for the season. We will learn a lot about him as he hasn’t been to Cheltenham before to experience the undulations there. When we know how he handles it, we can make a plan going forward but he’s obviously not without a chance.
Saturday
We start with Medyaf who won a listed race last time and thus has to carry a class one penalty. He’s a tough horse though who should suit the track and he’s obviously improving. The juvenile hurdles will get better and better as the season progresses obviously but he is clearly a player.
Midnight River goes for the big one on Saturday – the Gold Cup. He won last time out at Stratford quite convincingly and he is in good form at home.
This is obviously a very deep race. He is a horse we have always thought a great deal of and to actually get a nice smooth start to his season is fantastic. Last year he fell and put us on the back foot a little. This year it has been a different start, he is great at home, and we will give it our best.
I think he is good fresh and has a little squeak here. Although his first run last season was very good, a few of the other runs were a little inconsistent. I think a handicap hurdle is where he is at his best.
Bridget Andrews is at Wetherby for us and starts with Hitching Jacking. He is a lovely horse and a big, strong chaser in the making. He ran well in a bumper here in the spring and I would like to think he will be competitive.
We also run Viking’s Way who I think will make a nice chaser down the line. He ran OK at Fontwell first time over hurdles and he will do again here but I think fences will be for him.
He has only had one run over hurdles when he won on his debut. He has to give weight to the horse he beat that day which won’t be easy if you look at the form and we’ve got some pretty unexposed opposition outside of him.
I do think he had a bit up his sleeve that day and he shows a good turn of foot on nice ground. If all those things go to play, he has a lively chance. He is a real battling type of horse, a tough customer, and I am really looking forward to running him.
He doesn’t appear to be that well handicapped based on his most recent run. Sometimes that can happen to four-year-olds when they’ve been against their own age group and it can be hard ages 4 into 5.
We run two in this race. Whenthepennydrops comes here off the back of a long lay-off. I think he will improve a good deal for the run. I also think Yeoman Warder should show a lot more than he did the last day. He nearly got brought down at the first. He will need to show more though.
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