Being a jockey has highs and lows, no matter how talented a rider he or she is. Harry Skelton only had to jump the final flight aboard My Drogo on the first day of the Cheltenham November Meeting to prove victorious. He hit 1.03 in-running but came to grief and departed at the last. It was an awful race for Skelton and one that he needed to get over quickly with some top rides to come.
It was evident that the fall the day before had affected Skelton pretty badly after watching Third Time Lucki the next day. The 2-5 favourite won but the rider’s body language was nervous and he wasn’t too great at a few fences. He had another fall aboard Proshema later on in the day so things were starting to get very tough in the mind of Harry.
Whatever happened on the Sunday, Harry Skelton was a changed man mentally. He gave Nube Negra a brilliant ride when winning the Shloer Chase and then gave West Cork an unbelievable ride in the Greatwood Hurdle. That was also a masterful training performance as the horse was nearly two years off the track. Skelton said he had a good chat to a close friend the night before and that made all the difference.
Moving on, Skelton has now had seven winners from his last 24 rides and he travels to Ludlow on Monday for just one ride.
Stream Of Stars is the likely favourite for this but the Skelton’s would win with the yard cat at present and Rock Legend could prove too good on the day. This four-year-old is a half-brother to Wicklow Brave and was behind recent Grade 2 winner I Like To Move It on course debut at Aintree last year. He ran well on hurdling debut in third and wasn’t knocked about once his chance was gone so there should be more to come.
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