No looking back for Skelton, just a determined focus on getting better

You would have to be fairly hard-hearted not to feel some sympathy for Dan Skelton when Willie Mullins snatched the trainers’ championship away from him in the final throes of last season.

It took a huge effort from the Closutton giant, who after dominating Cheltenham was still over £700,000 behind Skelton but won both the English and Scottish Grand Nationals to become the first Irishman since Vincent O’Brien 70 years earlier to wear the crown.

Skelton, understandably, was crestfallen, but rather than feel sorry for himself, he endeavoured to throw everything at it once more and went on to build up a sizeable lead in the summer, setting Mullins an even tougher target this season.

With Skelton well on his way to £2.5million in prize-money already, Mullins is way back on less than £200,000.

But these days, the latter is almost guaranteed eight to 10 Festival winners it seems, and with Galopin Des Champs a long odds-on favourite to win a third Gold Cup, he will soon be eating into the lead.

“We’re ahead of where we were last year and we’ve just got to keep the ball rolling. If we have an average March and April, that should be enough – let’s hope for at least that,” said Skelton.

“I’m not nervous about it, what I’m nervous about is well-being. As long as the team stays healthy, we’ve done all we can and hopefully the results will bear that out.

“Going in saying we have to win this or that much prize-money is out of your control, the one thing we can control to a good degree is that they stay on track.”

Skelton had a fantastic four winners at the Festival last year, headlined by Grade One scorers Grey Dawning and Protektorat, and while the former is not going back this time, the latter holds a solid chance of a repeat in the Ryanair.

The New Lion, L’Eau Du Sud, Be Aware, Take No Chances and Valgrand are others among a team the Alcester handler feels is even stronger this time around.

He said: “It’s frightening to say that it’s better, isn’t it? But you can’t just say that because it’s better, then you’re going to have five winners because you had four last year. That’s just highly presumptuous – you can’t do that.

“I never thought we’d have four winners last year and I was rude enough to think that our best chance was on the Friday and that got beat (L’Eau Du Sud in the County Hurdle). We had four going into Friday and I thought we were definitely having five, but that’s our sport and that’s how it is.

“I think we’ve got the best team we’ve ever had, but whether that bears out in the results is a different matter. I think time will tell you this is the best team we’ve ever had from results beyond today.

“You can’t do it without the horses – you cannot make up quality or ability. When you are analysing form on a race-by-race basis, you can have a horse that likes the ground and loves the track, but if there is another horse in the race that is 10lb better, you are not going to beat it, realistically. Quality is massive.”

Although Mullins has proved to be a thorn in Skelton’s side, he is full of admiration for his big rival.

“What sets Willie apart is talent – his talent and that of his horses. We can all get them fit and Willie’s are super, super fit. It is going to be so hard to surpass Willie while he has the flow of talent that he has,” said Skelton.

“What we have taken from that is we need to make our own relationships and purchases from a supply chain – we can’t go to his. We need to make our own – that’s what we’re doing and I think that’s reaping the rewards.

“You can’t do that over a month or two years or five years – it’s over lifetimes that you build those connections and that’s what you’re starting to see now.

“We’re starting to see more and more of those really good horses. We’re really happy with where it is, but we think it can get better.

“Quality is huge, but we’re always changing what we do at home as well. Protektorat’s a great example. Last year, we changed things halfway through the year and we started getting different results.

“We’re never afraid to change things up. We’ve changed facilities, we do things differently to try to get a positive result. Sometimes you get a negative result and you have to go back to where you were, but we’re never afraid of failure – because if you’re afraid of failure, you never make a decision.

“The hard thing now is the position we’re in, we have to have a winner because if we don’t, you guys (the media) will say ‘they didn’t have a winner and they should have’, because realistically we should. We’re one of the bigger teams and we should.

“It’s new territory for us, that new reality that actually failure can be measured, whereas before when you’re only starting and you’re coming up through the ranks, it’s your successes that are measured, not your failures. Now, when you get further up, your failures get measured more than your successes!”