Quieter summer means the powerful Skelton team are raring to go this winter

It was a record-breaking year at Lodge Hill Farm in 2018-19, and although the pace through this summer has been a little less frantic, the trainer is happy with the progress that has been made.

"Last year we set out with a big ambition to have plenty of winners and give my brother Harry a chance in the jockeys' championship," he says, "and although Harry was only second, we managed 205 and I learned an awful lot, worked out a better way forward – and we had two winners at Cheltenham into the bargain.

"We're not looking at 200 winners this year, because you have to win a lot in the summer for that to happen and plan nine months in advance to organise it, but I think everybody's fresher and more relaxed as a result of the quieter period and we've got a stronger bunch of winter horses for races we've never had runners in before.