Dan Skelton: Big day ahead for Ballygrifincottage at Wetherby
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Ladbrokes ambassador Dan Skelton has 10 runners at Wetherby and Sandown on Saturday, and the Warwickshire-based trainer gave us the lowdown on their prospects.
We start with Get Up Mush who is a nice horse who ran really well first time. I don’t know what happened second time and he was very disappointing. We are concentrating on his first run though and off the back of that, he should have a big chance. I would like to see him in the first three, and of course it’s not impossible that he wins. I want to see him back up his first run here. He is fresh and well and should go nicely.
He runs in a five-runner race here which is worth a few quid. He has run well at the track before and there is no reason he won’t be bang up there again. He is in good form at home and we have given him a month since his last run which is helpful.
He is probably a leader here on figures and will be a short price. He loves three miles and I hope he can just get in a nice rhythm around a big galloping track like this and acquit himself well. If everything goes according to plan, we will strongly look at the three-mile novice chase at Cheltenham. This will be an important day for him.
He ran at Catterick last week and it’s just not happening for him at the moment. We need to get some runs under his belt. He appears to have lost his confidence a little, and we need to get that up too. Hopefully, he will have his day.
Heidi Palin had a winner during the week on Benny’s King and this is her second ride in a Hunters’ Chase. Hopefully he has a big chance. He won a couple of these last year. He didn’t stay in the big race at the end of the year at Stratford but I hope he can show the form he showed in these types last year. If he does, he should be bang up there.
He runs in the bumper. He is a big strong, scopey horse and he will make a chaser in time. He ran acceptably on his first start without exceeding our expectations. Hopefully, he can run better this time but we aren’t putting expectation pressure on the bumper horses right now. We want them for the future.
The ground has come right for Third Time Lucki but is a little bit against Eclair D’Ainay who loves it soft. He hasn’t had his conditions at all this year. The race for him was the Winter Millions and that got called off which was highly frustrating. He should run well here though even with the ground a little against him.
Third Time Lucki appears to be coming back to form. I don’t think he showed his best at Sandown last year but we are struggling for races to run him in and this is an obvious one for him.
He was second at the track earlier in the season. He had a bit of an underwhelming New Year’s Day but a few of ours were running like that at the time. If you look at his run before at Sandown, it was a very good run and will give him a chance.
He likes going right-handed and the ground has come good for him. Although he hasn’t looked like he is about to step into the winner’s enclosure on his most recent form. He underperformed at Christmas and he has to come back from that. However, a lot of our horses have run since then and acquitted themselves well so we aren’t too worried about leaving that form behind. He has a little chance.
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