'I was super happy with him at Cheltenham - he's a star in the making'

Dan Skelton has rapidly climbed the training ladder, to the point where he is now spoken of as a champion in waiting, and even if 2020 has been a strange time in racing, he's stayed focused on his route to the top.

"It's been a weird year," he concedes. "I had to turn a lot of horses out in the field in April and we didn't have the number of horses in for the summer that we had in the season when we got to 200 winners, but we've reshaped the team in favour of quality over quantity and I think our recent results have shown the benefit of that.

"It's vital to have the youngsters – bumper horses, novice hurdlers and novice chasers – coming through to keep pushing from the bottom up, and if you keep those drawers full of quality you'll be all right.