Which horse was Dan Skelton’s first winner as a trainer?

Dan Skelton is, of course, the elder son of Olympic showjumper Nick Skelton and the elder brother of Harry Skelton, who won the Jump Jockeys’ Championship in 2021. Formerly assistant to multiple champion trainer Paul Nicholls, with whom he spent nine years, Dan Skelton set up on his own at Lodge Hill Stables – a training centre purpose-built by his father – near Alcester, Warwickshire in 2013.

Skelton saddled his first winner as a trainer, at the ninth time of asking, when Mister Grez, ridden by his brother, won the Tanners Wines Handicap Chase at Ffos Las on October 13, 2013. He finished his inaugural season with a respectable 27 winners and just over £327,000 in prize money but, by 2015/16, had increased his seasonal tally to 104 winners and £1.26 million in prize money.

In 2018/19, Skelton enjoyed his most successful season so far, reaching the impressive total of 205 winners – a figure only previously achieved by the all-conquering Martin Pipe – and amassing just over £2.3 million in prize money. That season, Skelton achieved the first of his six Grade 1 wins, so far, courtesy of Roksana in the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. By that stage of his career, he had already won the County Handicap Hurdle twice, with Superb Story in 2016 and Mohaayed in 2018, and he would win the same race again with Ch’tibello three days later.

Which horse came closest to beating Frankel?

Bred and owned by the late Khalid Abdullah and trained by the late Sir Henry Cecil, Frankel was officially the greatest racehorse of all time. He was retired from racing in October, 2012, unbeaten in all 14 races, including ten at Group 1 level, with an official rating of 140. While it should be noted that, at the time of writing, the unbeaten 3-year-old Sea The Stars colt Baaeed is rated 125, 2lb higher than Frankel at the equivalent stage of his career, no other horse since has been worth mentioning in the same breath.

Strictly speaking, the horse that came closest to beating Frankel, in terms of the official winning distance, was Nathaniel, who was beaten just half a length when both horses made their racecourse debuts, as two-year-olds, in a maiden stakes races over 7 furlongs at Newmarket in August, 2010. However, despite the narrow winning margin, Frankel only had to be shaken up by jockey Tom Queally to win readily and, in truth, never looked in any real danger of defeat.

However, that was by no means the case on the third start of his three-year-old campaign, in the St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. Fresh from a 6-length win in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, where he set blistering early fractions, Frankel proved more amenable to restraint at Ascot. Nevertheless, when asked for an effort, his natural exuberance took over and he soon strode clear, only for his exertions to take their toll close home. At the line, Frankel was all out to hold Zoffany by an ever-diminishing three-quarters of a length.

Who won the 2021 Flat Owners’ Championship?

The 2021 Flat Owners’ Championship was decided, as is customary nowadays, on prize money won on turf and all-weather tracks between May 1, 2021 and October 16, 2021. It was won, for the fifth time in six years, and the fourteenth time in all, by Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation. During the ‘Championship’ period, the famous royal blue silks were carried to victory 125 times and Godolphin won over £5.2 million in prize money, over £1.7 million ahead of their nearest rival, Shadwell Estates.

Godolphin’s biggest single earner was Adayar, trained by Charlie Appleby, who won the Derby at Epsom and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, before finishing fourth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp. Other major money-spinners on British soil included Hurricane Lane, who won the St. Leger at Doncaster, Native Trail, who won the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket and Creative Force, who won the British Champion Sprint Stakes at Ascot. All three are trained by Charlie Appleby who, unsurprisingly, won the Flat Trainers’ Championship, ahead of John and Thady Gosden, Andrew Balding and William Haggas, all of whom won over £4 miilion in prize money.

William Buick, who is first-choice jockey for Appleby, eventually missed out 153-151 to Oisin Murphy in his quest to win the Flat Jockeys’ Championship. Reflecting on his nip-and-tuck battle for the jockeys’ title, he said, ‘I gave it everything I had, I left nothing on the table and I didn’t quite make it.’

How many Classic winners has Andrew Balding saddled?

Andrew Balding is, of course, the son of Ian Balding, who famously saddled Mill Reef to win the Derby in 1971. Balding Jnr. succeeded his father as the licensed trainer at Park House Stables in Kingsclere, near Newbury, in 2003 and, within six months of doing so, had saddled his first Classic winner. Indeed, the victory of Casual Look in the Oaks proved to an emotional affair for the whole Balding family. Clare Balding, who was anchoring BBC television coverage at Epsom, attempted to interview both her brother and her father, but none of them could manage much more than a tearful, stunned silence. Eventually she told viewers, ‘I’m sorry. The Balding family aren’t very communicative at the moment. We’ll be back to you in a minute.’

Andrew Balding had to wait a few years for his second Classic winner but, in 2020, identified Kameko as ‘the best we’ve had here [at Park House Stables] for a good long while’. His lofty opinion of the Kitten’s Joy colt was justified when he scored a narrow victory in the first Classic of the season, the 2,000 Guineas, which was staged a month later than usual because of the coronavirus pandemic. So, at the time of writing, Andrew Balding has saddled just two Classic winners. However, he does have six Group 1 victories to his name, the two most recent of which came courtesy of Alcohol Free, in the Coronation Stakes at Ascot and the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood in 2021.

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