Grey Dawning back on track with Premier performance at Kelso

Grey Dawning turned in a virtually faultless round of jumping to win the bet365 Premier Chase at Kelso.

The four-horse contest was very much billed as a match between the Dan Skelton-trained Grey Dawning and Iroko, who is a leading Grand National contender for Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero.

Harry Skelton was positive from the off on 5-6 favourite as the well-supported El Elefante tried to go with him in the early stages, with Jonjo O’Neill jnr happy to sit off the front pair aboard Iroko.

When El Elefante came down at the 12th fence, it was left to Grey Dawning and Iroko to battle it out but the market leader was travelling noticeably well, with Harry Skelton able to take a look over his shoulder with a couple still to jump.

While Iroko did try his best to edge in front, Grey Dawning was just too strong and a fine leap at the last sealed victory, with his rider able to ease down before the line for a two-and-a-half-length victory.

Grey Dawning was having just his third start of the year at Kelso, having run second on deep ground in the Betfair Chase in November before being pulled up when contesting the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day.

Dan Skelton said: “That was really good. We wanted to see him back to what he can do and he jumped beautifully.

“He’s obviously very, very good and everyone knows he’s very, very good – we’ve just not had the conditions and situations to show him off this year.

“After Haydock my feeling was if the ground was different, you’d get a different result. The ground today is what we wish we’d had that day, but fair play to the winner (Royale Pagaille) – he loves that ground and we didn’t.

“I actually felt he’d recovered in time for the King George, but the mistake at the first and the tempo Il Est Francais went, it negated us.

“Today was more our ground, it’s left-handed, there’s lots of ticks in the boxes and he’s put up a really good performance.”

Grey Dawning still holds an entry in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but Skelton intends to head to the Aintree Bowl on April 3.

He added: “That Gold Cup picture is for next year. Hopefully this time next year we’re building into something a little different, but we have to do the right things and make the right calls and I feel like we have.

“We’re delighted to be in the position we’re in. We’ve put a little bit back together and I’ve kept saying we’ve got to make sure we have a decent spring with him because he’s one of our flagship horses.

“OK he was a good second in Haydock, but second is second and we want a winner, so to have gone and done that today and looked so impressive was brilliant.”

Iroko was left an unchanged 12-1 shot for the National with Coral and Greenall felt a number of factors had gone against his Aintree contender on this occasion.

He said: “He ran well, Jonjo just felt the track was probably a little bit sharp for him in that sort of grade.

“I walked the track beforehand and watched the first race out there and I thought it would ride almost softer than good to soft, but Jonjo said it felt like good ground on him.

“I was happy with him, but I think today there were no excuses. He’s had a few runs and he’s fit.

“He was up against a good horse and I hope we’re heading for the National – he deserves to go. I think the trip is what he wants as he always seems to be doing his best work at the end.

“He does normally travel a bit better in his races, but they were probably going quite quick.

“He’ll just tick along now and he’s got to jump a National fence.”