Another day, another ‘job done’ for super focused Skelton

“I’m only doing my job,” said a modest Dan Skelton, who turned to the phrase synonymous with former Manchester United captain Roy Keane after picking up his second feature race in as many days at Cheltenham.

Skelton had saddled L’Eau Du Sud to light up a grizzly day in the Cotswolds, downing Jonbon, on Friday. Barely 24 hours later, he was jubilant once again, as Panic Attack stormed home to give his thriving team a first Paddy Power Gold Cup.

It was another master plan successfully hatched by a team famed for sublime planning, but as a son of a dual Olympic gold medallist Nick Skelton, it is perhaps no surprise that the apple does not fall far from the tree and sporting excellence is in the DNA of the man at the helm of the Lodge Hill operation.

“To some degree it gives me more satisfaction when I target a race and it comes off, but at the end of the day I’m a paid professional with a job to do – and as Roy Keane would say, I’m only doing my job,” said Skelton.

“I’ve had this in mind since Panic Attack couldn’t make the Plate last year and I knew this was the right race for her.

“It’s always hard to get the plan to come together and afterwards it’s always easy when I’m stood here talking to you (the media). But this horse was a real team effort.

“I’ve always worked with people who are trying to achieve something, whether that was numerically building the yard, working with owners to achieve their dream or something else and if I can set a target then it’s something I can concentrate on.

“It’s kind of in my nature and although I’m happy to accept any accolade, we all work hard for this.

“Dad always say it’s not what you win in a day, it’s what you win in a lifetime and if you hang in there and work hard, this sport can give you unbelievable highs that you can’t get anywhere else.”

Skelton is already past the £1million mark in prize-money as he searches for the elusive trainers’ championship that has been cruelly snatched away by Willie Mullins in the dying days of the past two seasons.

The Closutton invasion will soon rear its head once again, but for now Skelton is happy to douse title talk with cold water, at pains to steer conversation back to the present.

“It’s not deliberate,” said Skelton when asked about building an early advantage in the trainers’ standings. “It’s simply about running the right horses in the right races and if I’ve horses for these races I want to be running them. I love running horses, I don’t shy away from it.

“I ran L’Eau Du Sud one too many times last season, but that’s my nature and I will run them if they are right and sometimes I get it wrong. I love running horses, my owners enjoy running them and as long as they are healthy I will keep doing it.

“The horses have hit form and I said to Grace (wife) last week, it feels like they are about to turn and it just felt like the bubbles were coming to the surface. I can’t tell you why it happens but I couldn’t be happier they are in this form.”

Early talk of open-top bus parades round the streets of Alcester may be far from Skelton’s mind, but an early examination of his title credentials lies in wait at Sandown on December 6, when the aforementioned L’Eau Du Sud seeks to prove his Shloer success was no flash in the pan.

Jonbon will be back for revenge and crossing the Irish Sea is likely to be Il Etait Temps, for what is shaping up to be a Tingle Creek pre-Christmas cracker.

And although aware the season is still in its infancy and life will soon get much tougher, Skelton is cut from the same cloth as his mentor, Paul Nicholls – with a challenge for facing rather than shirking.

“Sandown is going to be hard and I’m under no illusions,” Skelton added. “Jonbon will now have had a run under his belt and yesterday was just a first swallow of summer and you just hope it’s not just a one-off.

“We’ll need to be at Jonbon’s level to win at Sandown and it will be hard. Il Etait Temps will come over from Ireland as well and it’s only going to get harder.

“It’s November and not March so we just have to keep working harder and harder until we get to March.”

Targets may have been landed, but there is always another bullseye on the long road to the top.