To chase or not to chase? That's the burning question for Samcro's connections

The jockeys' title

For aeons, the only topic of discussion at the start line of the jockeys' title race was 'how far?'. Betting on the distance was the only game in town when AP McCoy was around and bagging 20 consecutive championships. Even the dual forecast was of limited interest with Richard Johnson around and the rest struggling to catch up.

Now, although Johnson has assumed the mantle of perennial champion with three straight wins in the post-McCoy era, the conversation tends to be more animated at the beginning of the season. The new champ, it seems, doesn't have the same veneer of invincibility, the same impregnable, God-given right to win, and the challengers have queued up behind him with more of an air of anticipation. The thing is, several of the pretenders aren't quite so young anymore and they've had a few goes at it, while the newer faces on the block as yet don't have the ammunition to launch a credible challenge.

One man who has titillated the interest of the jumping public in the past couple of years is Harry Skelton, who has the not inconsiderable backing of his big brother Dan, who supplied 128 of his 131 winners last term and has so far chipped in with all but one of this season's running total of 87.