'There'll be a fight knowing the sorcerer and his apprentice' - Dan Skelton owner excited by trainer's title challenge

Dan Skelton has had a week to remember and it continued thanks to Boombawn in the 2m5f handicap hurdle.

He was ridden by the trainer's brother Harry in the silks of Sarah Faulks, who owns the gelding with Patrick Bullen-Smith.

Skelton, who had four winners at the Cheltenham Festival this week, revealed Faulks had helped prepare Boombawn during the depths of winter when the testing ground he doesn't like was prevalent.

"We had him at home for a bit and are quite hands on," she said. "We have a stud, breed horses and have ten broodmares, so we're quite busy."

Put to Faulks – who owned former Skelton star Roksana with her husband Nigel – that she might have her horses with a potential champion trainer, she added: "Isn't that so exciting? I think there'll be a fight knowing the sorcerer [Paul Nicholls] and the sorcerer's apprentice.

"I was thrilled for Dan at Cheltenham. It was an amazing week and Harry is riding out of his skin too. It was fantastic for the whole team and it was through Harry we got to know Dan. 

"He'd ridden other horses we had in training and said one day that Dan was going to start training. We let him do it for a year before we moved across and we think he's exceptional."

Outlaw the good guy

Andy Stewart's red, black and white silks will be forever associated with Cheltenham thanks to iconic staying hurdler Big Buck's, and they were in the winner's enclosure at the end of festival week when the Paul Nicholls-trained Outlaw Peter landed the 2m4½f handicap chase.

Stewart died in 2021 but his family has continued to maintain an interest in the sport and his son Mark said: "We've got eight horses with Paul now and a lot are owned in partnership with Dad's friends, so this one is with Sir Alex [Ferguson] and Ged [Mason].

"We're probably not as prolific as Dad, but it's changed a lot with the prices and how competitive it is. We very much lived on his coat-tails and enjoyed it. The likes of Big Buck's was amazing, so we'll always have an interest, but not on the scale he did.

"He took me racing to Plumpton and Fontwell when I was a child and I thought if he couldn't beat him, I'd join him. The rest of the family would normally be here but the M25 is shut, which is why it's just me, but we still love it."

In the money

British racing is criticised for many things, but its bonuses for jumps mares is seen as a roaring success and Wyenot added to her kitty with success in the mares' novice hurdle.

Trained by Henry Daly, she has won three times this season, earning more than £13,000 in prize-money, but bonus schemes for British-bred mares have helped swell that pot further.

"That's three bonuses she's won," said Daly. "She's won £50,000 in those bonuses, which is something else. Humphrey Salwey, who runs the syndicate that owns her, is thrilled to bits!"

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