Not many horses can pull like a train for two miles around Cheltenham in heavy ground and still win impressively.
Trainer-jockey brothers Dan and Harry Skelton have an exciting JCB Triumph Hurdle prospect on their hands after Allmankind ran out an eye-catching winner of the Gr2 JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday.t
The well-bred son of Sea The Moon, who moved to Dan Skelton’s yard from Michael Bell’s Newmarket base earlier in the autumn, was an 11/4 chance and beat Botox Has by two and a half lengths. He made a winning debut over hurdles eight days ago at Warwick.
“I thought this was possible – I wouldn’t say probable – but I was really impressed with him at Warwick. He was keen here, but I can tell you he’s a lot worse at home!” said Dan Skelton. “I just said to Harry, and to Tim [Gredley] who owns him, ‘there’s no point running this horse in another Mickey Mouse race because he’s hard on himself at home. There’s no point galloping at home because he’s so hard on himself – we may as well just go to the races’.
“Tim said to me that there was a point when he was a two-year-old when they thought he wasn’t far off Derby standard, but then he just got keener and keener. I think the ability has always been there. I wouldn’t call him fragile-minded, because he’s not, but he is bull-headed, as you can see. But juveniles, to keep going in those conditions, you need to be quite strong-headed.
“I’m delighted with that. He’s shown us what he can do now and I won’t be in a hurry to get him out and find out what he can’t do. We’ll just go a little bit steady now and treat him with the respect he deserves.
“Obviously we will aim to come back here in March. He’s good enough to have a place in that [the JCB Triumph Hurdle], and he’s tough – nothing will get to him in the meantime, if that makes sense. I can’t see why he needs more experience and that type of thing, so we can just plan backwards from there. I should imagine one race before then.”
Asked whether the occasion might get to him at The Festival, Skelton replied, “To be honest with you, he could boil over at a one-man party. The FA Cup Final wouldn’t stress him anymore than a one-man party.”
