Dan Skelton: Conditions should suit Third Time Lucki at Doncaster
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Ladbrokes ambassador Dan Skelton is sending out a combined nine runners at Doncaster, Cheltenham and Uttoxeter on Saturday and the Warwickshire-based trainer gave us the lowdown on their chances.
I would give him a chance in a very competitive, deep race. I thought there were going to be a lot fewer runners than this.
He is not badly handicapped, although as the handicapper has been more lenient on the novices this season, there could be one of them lurking in here.
Good ground should be perfect for Third Time Lucki. I would like to think he can go very close. I know he has to give a Grade 2 penalty away but these are his ideal conditions.
She is the lowest rated of these. She should be fifth favourite and finish fifth but if anything underperforms she can pick up black type with luck.
This is a very competitive race, as you’d expect it to be. We are happy with him at home. He’s done loads of work and we’ve got to get him out there.
I’d have loved some rain but good ground shouldn’t prevent him showing his best.
He likes a bit of nice ground and that’s what we expect it to be there. Hopefully he can put in another decent round after a nice run the other day at Doncaster when he bumped into one.
He is always good around Cheltenham. We were too aggressive with him over three miles the last day so he is coming back in distance.
There is no point in me saying I think he will win because he hasn’t won for a long time but he always runs well in these races.
This has been rescheduled from Huntingdon. I said before she was due to run there not to expect too many fireworks, but she looks a nice mare at home.
If she can run in a race like this and pick up black type then great. She could win a normal bumper on what we see at home but we are going in here with our eyes open.
He has won round the track before and I am happy the race doesn’t have that many runners. The Lanzarote was a difficult day out for him with all those runners but he has come back fresh and well.
This is the first time I have run her off her handicap mark in a race I think she could win. We’ve run in Listed races before this and she was just a little out of her depth.
I have had many discussions with her owners about what path to take. She was a graded winner as a hurdler, which was why we took the Listed route. We are in calmer waters here and this should tell us what we do.
