Dan Skelton: 'Market forces shouldn't be frowned upon – that's economics'

Dan Skelton does not see himself as a complainer and, with 205 winners in his last completed season marking the zenith of a decade of meteoric progress here at Lodge Hill Stables, he seemingly has little to complain about on this drab but busy morning.

Not that Skelton does not recognise the need for evolution in his own operation, but there are certainly far more positives than negatives in his world.

The trainer has well and truly joined the big league in the past few seasons. He is on the cusp of a fifth successive century and will be the first to reach that milestone in Britain this season by some distance, while last term his tally of 205 was 64 ahead of his nearest competitor and he had nearly 400 more runners than any other trainer.