Grey Dawning

What makes Grey Dawning genuinely special is where he wins. Five of his 11 victories have come in Class 1 races — the very best races Britain has to offer — and he has won at that level at four different venues: Cheltenham, Warwick, Kelso, and Haydock Park. Most horses spend their careers trying to win one of those. He has collected them across three seasons, and he is still at it. He won at Aintree just this week, and he raced again only yesterday. At nine, he is not slowing down; he is collecting venues.

Haydock Park has become a particular home from home. He has won 2 of his 3 races there, and the team clearly knows it. Dan Skelton has been frank that last season did not go entirely to plan — Grey Dawning was never quite himself, and the yard took a more cautious approach as a result. But this season they put that right with a Class 1 win at Haydock in November, and the horse has not looked back. His last six races read 1-4-3-1-2-1: three wins, and he has only once finished out of the first four.

The partnership with jockey Harry Skelton — Dan's brother — is one of the more quietly impressive combinations in jump racing right now. Together they have won 10 of their 20 races, a 50% win rate. That means half the time Harry gets on this horse, they win. For context, a professional jockey winning 1 in 5 rides across a whole career would be considered outstanding. Winning 1 in 2 on a specific horse points to something close to a perfect match.

Dan Skelton, whose yard has sent out 194 winners this season alone, has been measured in his public expectations for Grey Dawning — acknowledging that races at this level are genuinely open and unpredictable. But with a horse winning at Class 1 into his ninth year, competing at Aintree days after a race, the facts do most of the talking for him.