Kelso stop for Grey Dawning before Aintree

Dan Skelton is sticking to his plan of heading to Kelso and then Aintree with Grey Dawning rather than running in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham.

A winner at the Festival last season, Skelton had hoped he would develop into a real Gold Cup horse this season and that looked to be the case after his first race at Haydock.

He travelled like the best horse in the Betfair Chase only to be run down close home by course specialist Royale Pagaille.

In the immediate aftermath the Alcester handler felt the race would have taken too much out of his charge to run in the King George on Boxing Day, but he was surprised how the gelding bounced out of the race and eventually turned up at Kempton.

However, a first-fence blunder and the fierce gallop set by Il Est Francais meant it was a non-event and Skelton has been considering the Kelso Premier Chase and Aintree Bowl route ever since.

“The idea at the moment is to go to Kelso and Aintree. We’re getting to the point now where that’s next week so that is the most likely scenario. I will leave him in the Gold Cup just in case something untoward happens with the opposition, and I don’t wish that on them, of course,” Skelton said.

“The Gold Cup picture is obviously a little muddy behind the favourite (Galopin Des Champs), and that’s because of the strength of the favourite in my opinion, and with the favourite being in there it’s still super, super hard to win.

“Yes, second and third does look like it’s up for grabs and maybe I’d look at this race a little differently if he’d won at Haydock, but he didn’t so we’re not. I feel like if we go to Kelso and Aintree, it gives us two chances of going and running this spring rather than one.

“If he ran in the Gold Cup that would be the only race that he’d run in, because he can’t go to Sandown right-handed and he can’t go to Punchestown right-handed, so we just need to do what’s right for the horse, short and long term.

“I think short-term we give ourselves a chance of winning those two races and long-term we get some more experience and we can come back as a Gold cup contender next year.

“Of course I’m disappointed not to be going for a Gold Cup with a horse I thought last year that I would be, but things change and you have to be open to change with horses because if you only parcel them down one road, then you’re not doing the best by them.”