Dan Skelton has well and truly arrived - and a first title might not be far away

Dan Skelton had already risen to the upper echelons of the training fraternity but he has planted a flag at the peak in the last fortnight with his victories in the Betfair Chase at Haydock and Coral Gold Cup at Newbury – and it's a bonanza that has been years in the making.

That big double on consecutive Saturdays was by no means accidental but the result of years of gradual building and meticulous planning from a man destined to take his place among the training elite.

I was there in person at Haydock to hear Skelton say Protektorat's victory in the Betfair Chase was a culmination of what he set out to do when he started training in 2013 and you sensed it was a pivotal moment in his career.