Grey Dawning

Noted here after he won a graduation chase at Haydock last month, Grey Dawning is worthy of note again after he finished second behind Ginny’s Destiny in the two-and-a-half-mile novices’ chase at Cheltenham on Friday. He travelled well through his race in the slipstream of the winner, and he was just starting to mount his challenge when he made a bad mistake at the second last fence. It was a real momentum-halting and energy-sapping mistake, so he did really well to get back into the race and to keep on as well as he did up the hill to get to within three parts of a length of the winner in the end. It was a really good run on the face of it, conceding 3lb to a progressive rival, but it was even better than the bare form of it, it is probable that he would have won if he had jumped the second last even a little better.

Dan Skelton’s horse remains exciting. He led from a long way out at Haydock, he put his rivals to the sword with a bold display, and it may be that a return to those tactics will see him in an even better light. He gets three miles, but he may be even better over the minimum trip, or over an easy three miles, and ridden aggressively. His trainer says that he has to go left-handed, and it may be that a flat track suits him better than an undulating one. Either way, he is only six and this was just his third chase, so there could be much more to come.

Cheltenham, 15^th December 2023