'I’m certain we haven’t seen the best of him' - Graeme Rodway with three selections on a super Sunday

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Pembroke
1.15 Lingfield
1pt win

Real Stone
1.50 Lingfield
1pt win

Ramo
2.25 Lingfield
1pt win

It has been a disappointing season for Dan Skelton judging by the high standards he has set, but last weekend the Warwickshire trainer had six winners in Britain, including Jay Jay Reilly, Flegmatik and Grey Dawning, who landed three of the biggest races on Saturday.

Skelton has saddled another two winners from just six runners since that red-letter day and, with his stable now flying for the first time this season, he could be dominant at Lingfield.

Protektorat is the stable star and he has a good chance in the feature Fitzdares Fleur de Lys Chase (3.00), but the bookmakers haven’t missed him and L’Homme Presse is a tough rival.

With that in mind, it’s worth skipping that race and concentrating on a couple of Skelton’s other Sunday hopes, starting with Pembroke in the Grade 2 novice chase (1.15) over 2m.

Like a few from the Skelton stable, Pembroke was below form last autumn when beaten on his first two starts over fences, but he bounced back to his best when equalling his highest hurdle Racing Post Rating with an easy victory in a 2m4f chase at Aintree last month.

Pembroke blew that race apart after taking over at the fifth fence and sauntered clear to win in his own time as the only finisher. He had the race won at the cross fence as nothing could live with the pace he showed and, although he walked up the run-in, he was never in any danger.

The slow way in which he finished that race makes me think he might have been stretched by 2m4f on heavy ground and the return to 2m on better going may see him in a better light. 

Pembroke has to carry a 3lb penalty and plenty of others have stronger form credentials, but I’m certain we haven’t seen the best of him yet and he has a lot more upside than these rivals.

The other Skelton-trained horse to back is Real Stone in the 2m handicap chase (1.50). He is ridden by Ciaran Gethings, rather than regular partner Harry Skelton, and that shouldn’t be seen as a negative as the selection has 10st 2lb and Gethings can presumably do the weight.

Real Stone produced one of the most impressive displays of the season when jumping superbly and bounding clear to win head-in-chest by 20 lengths at Haydock last November, but was unable to match that performance when returned to the same track just before Christmas.

He went off 11-8 favourite that day and trailed in 43 lengths behind the winner in third, but maybe he didn’t handle the heavy ground and it’s probably worth giving him a pass for that.

He is 9lb higher than for his last win from 2lb out of the handicap here, but that Haydock victory was so striking that it’s worth giving him another chance at what may be a big price.

Venetia Williams is another trainer who appears to have targeted this meeting and she can land the 2m7f handicap hurdle (2.25) with Ramo, who is reunited with 5lb claimer Ned Fox.

Fox rode Ramo to victory at Newton Abbot last April and the seven-year-old has improved since. He has run well on three of his four starts this season and finished third at Plumpton two weeks ago in a race remembered for a heroic Joe Anderson-ride on winner Transmission.

That was a valuable race, run in a solid time for the grade, and Ramo will be running off a mark 5lb lower if you include his rider’s claim. That can help him get his head back in front.

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