Making ground on Nicholls and Henderson in title race the aim for Dan Skelton

Dan Skelton has set his sights on closing the gap on training titans Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls after conceding that another double-century of winners is probably out of his grasp this season.

The trainer is focusing his efforts more on the winter as his yard gradually builds up to full strength.

With 30 successes on the board before Tuesday's racing, Skelton is well behind the breakneck pace he set in a memorable 2018-2019 campaign, when he hit the half-century on July 1 and ended up passing the 200-winner mark, a feat only previously achieved by Martin Pipe.

"Last season was an incredible achievement and numerically I always knew we would not get off to such a good start this time," he said.

"To get past the 200 mark you really need to start off aggressively and we did not have the horses in to do it this time. I know that I have no chance of getting anywhere Martin Pipe’s record total of 243 and even reaching last season’s tally of 205 is very unlikely.

"I’ve improved my winning tally every season so far but it’s not going to happen this time. If we were going to get another 200 it would be something that just crept on us and not something we planned for or expected.

"Last year was an exception, not the benchmark which is to win £1 million in prize-money and have at least 100 winners."

Skelton secured his first Grade 1 success when Roksana won the Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and, with some promising types in his yard, he is hoping more will come his way.

He added: "It’s only July so it’s early days to assess a lot of the horses but we are going to have similar numbers to last year – around 120 – and we’re always trying to improve the quality."

"The best races are incredibly difficult to win but we’ve got some nice novice chasers and hurdlers that I hope will be good enough to be aimed at these races.

"My ambition is to close the gap on Nicky [Henderson] and Paul [Nicholls]. I’m not going to catch them just yet but I hope to get closer to them in coming years."

Interconnected (left): finished a highly promising second to Emitom at Newbury on his debut under rulesCredit: Alan Crowhurst / Getty Images

Skelton’s hopes of big-race success have been boosted by the decision of owner Darren Yates to send him several horses, including Interconnected and Grand National contenders Blaklion and Don Poli.

Yates paid £620,000 for Interconnected at the Doncaster sales in May and views him as a Gold Cup horse for the future.

"Darren is on holiday so I haven’t discussed anything yet with him about his horses but it will be great to see what Interconnected can do," said Skelton. "It’s a huge price tag but the horse doesn’t know how much he cost."

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