Paul Nicholls’ decision to recommend that the classy grey be moved to his former protege,Dan Skelton, could arrive back to haunt him on Boxing DayMartin Pipe sent out just one winner in his first season with a licence and needed 14 years more to claim his first National Hunt trainers’ championship. It took Paul Nicholls three years to reach 50 winners and 15 seasons in all to unseat Pipe from the top of the mountain. By those two measures alone Dan Skelton’s progress since striking out on his own after eight years as Nicholls’s assistant has been almost indecent.
Skelton is in his third season with a licence and could well pass final years total of £714164 in prize money before the end of December. He sits third in the trainers’ championship, and behind only Nicholls and Philip Hobbs,and seems as likely to construct further progress up the ladder this season as he is to drop a rung or two. Famous names whose earnings trail well behind Skeltons total include Jonjo O’Neill, Nigel Twiston-Davies and Nicky Henderson, and who was the champion trainer in 2012-13,the season before Skelton took out his licence.
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Source: theguardian.com