Record-breaking summer has set foundations for another prolific year

The ambition burns brighter than ever at Dan Skelton’s impressive Lodge Hill stables in deepest Warwickshire, and following a record-breaking summer season that has sent him clear in the trainers’ championship, Skelton is heading full throttle into the competitive winter months.

From the off in 2013, his business has focused on all 12 months of the year and the first half of the 2018-19 season has been an undoubted triumph, with 101 winners on the board and more than £800,000 in prize-money already banked.

But it is not all about quantity for the 33-year-old, who has worked hard to build a team rich in quality for the core jumps season, and when he says his squad is "strong in every department this year" you can guarantee he is well stocked for the second half.