While all-time great trainers Willie Mullins, Nicky Henderson and Gordon Elliot are likely to dominate the headlines at the upcoming Cheltenham Festival, there are a few less experienced trainers who could perform well above their pre-meeting expectations and cause some major upsets when pitted against the aforementioned Leading Trainer candidates.
Even though it’s mightily important to have the talent to compete, particularly at an event as prestigious as Cheltenham, it’s equally paramount as a trainer in National Hunt racing to ensure you have your thoroughbreds peaking at the right time – something the newer guard of trainers are proving they’re more than capable of doing.
Therefore, with that in mind, let’s take a look at two trainers who, although may not challenge for the Leading Trainer gong in 2023, will be difficult to contend with over the Festival’s four days of racing.
Joseph O’Brien
The O’Brien surname is synonymous with horse racing in the UK & Ireland, with Aidan arguably the greatest flat racing trainer in the region’s history. His 29-year-old son Joseph is carrying that tradition on, having incredible success at both the domestic and international level in a short period of time.
O’Brien’s accomplishments are predominately on the flat however, with his signature wins including with Rekindling and Twilight Payment at the 2017 and 2020 Melbourne Cups, to coincide with back-to-back Irish Derby triumphs with Pretty Polly Stakes and Iridessa in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
That’s not to say he hasn’t had any success on the National Hunt scene however, with O’Brien securing notable victories in the Irish Gold Cup, Spring Juvenile Hurdle and Christmas Hurdle to name a few. He will have another opportunity to add to his already laundry list of accomplishments at Prestbury Park this month, with the three-time Cheltenham winner boasting a strong team that includes Stayers’ Hurdle hope Home By The Lee and Ryanair Chase chance Fakir D’ourdairies.
If those two can upset the favourites and win their respective races, expect O’Brien to firm in the Cheltenham odds for Leading Trainer. For those interested in placing a bet on O’Brien to win the top trainer award, he is currently paying 33/1 with certain operators.
Dan Skelton
As short as 52/1 with some operators and as wide as 100/1 with others to win the Leading Trainer award, four-time Cheltenham Festival winner Dan Skelton has vowed to only send a select team who he believes has a legitimate shot of challenging.
“In general, I’m not going to have a massive team and I only want to take horses who have a real chance of getting into the winner’s enclosure,” he said.
“One thing we’ve learned over the years is that it can be a great place and it can also be a very frustrating place.
“We’re going to just try and take the horses who are either suitable for it or deserve to take their chance at it or the ones that we really think have to go – it’s not going to be too much more complicated than that for us. We try not to take too many 100-1 chances if we can help it.”
Skelton will be hoping his approach of taking a smaller but stronger team to Cheltenham will breed success – with the 37-year-old having not secured a Festival victory since 2019. This month’s renewal is a golden opportunity to break that drought however, with Protektorat (Gold Cup), Nube Negra (Quren Mother Champion Chase) and Galia Des Liteaux (Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase) some of his better-fancied entries.