'We'll find him one more race with a view to stepping up into Grade 1 company - I think he's really useful'

If last season looked to the outside world like a concerted bid for the trainers' championship by Dan Skelton, then from the inside it was a very different beast. The master of Lodge Hill Farm has never made any secret of his title ambitions, but he confesses that he began the 2023-24 campaign with no high hopes.

"I thought we were building a team that would have a good chance this year," he explains. "It never crossed my mind that we could win it last year until Cheltenham.

"After that, there were three fabulous weeks when I thought I might, but when I saw all the entries Willie [Mullins] had made at Aintree, that gave me a flash of doubt, and when I Am Maximus won the National I knew we were done.