RANDOX GRAND NATIONAL FESTIVAL NEWS: VALUABLE SUCCESS FOR SKELTON AS KATEIRA TAKES WILLIAM HILL HANDICAP HURDLE
Friday 12th April
Trainer Dan Skelton secured a valuable win in the race for the 2023/24 Jump trainers’ championship when Kateira (5-1 Co-Favourite) put up a battling display to win the William Hill Handicap Hurdle at Aintree today.
The six-year-old Kayf Tara mare battled well to see of Jango Baie by a length and three-quarters under the trainer’s brother Harry.
Dan Skelton said: “She is a good horse. She came here last year for a Grade One and that shows you what we thought of her.
“She just got lost in the autumn and winter. She ran two races in very bad ground. I stepped her up to three miles, and when you do something like that it is because you are struggling. She is actually a two and a half mile horse on acceptable ground. I have to say yesterday may have been a fraction too soft, so the fact it has dried up a little bit has helped her. When you are on a good horse in a race you find things open up a bit better than otherwise. She is just really good.
She was in a handicap I know, but I would have no worries stepping her out of a handicap one day. She will go up a bit for that. She might go to Sandown on the last day of the season. She is a little pocket rocket and she doesn’t need to jump a fence. It was a good run at Kempton, and we needed a positive run under our belt.
“When you look back you think blimey Dan she was only third and second in races, but she was third and second in races that I felt that she might have been able to win. That run the other day, when she finished through the line really well, was exactly what we needed to see. It was a step in the right direction on better ground. That has helped her massively confidence wise.
“Since this meeting last year (we had earmarked this race) if we didn’t end up being a graded horse as it was the obvious race to come back for. We had graded ambitions that had to be shelved. Some horses get a clear run at things, and some don’t. She didn’t have a clear run, hopefully with a clear run she can step up to graded company next season.”
Nicky Henderson, trainer of the runner-up Jango Baie, said: Nicky Henderson: “I think he got caught up at the second-last when that horse fell, but there you go. I loved the way he finished - he’s run a great race. That will be it for the season, and he’ll go chasing next year.”
