Protektorat

What separates Protektorat from many horses at this level is his relationship with wet, muddy ground. On soft or heavy surfaces he has won 5 of 13 races — that's a 38% win rate, nearly 2 in every 5. The ground effectively unlocks a different horse. His record dry is nowhere near that, which is why his team at Alcester watches the weather forecasts almost as closely as they watch the opposition. Trainer Dan Skelton — who has sent out an extraordinary 194 winners this season alone — knows exactly what conditions his horse needs to thrive.

The career highlights are genuinely impressive. He won at Aintree on his first-ever victory in December 2021, came back to win at Haydock in November 2022, and then produced perhaps his finest hour with a top-level win at Cheltenham in March 2024. Then, as if to prove he had lost nothing with age, he went to Windsor and won a high-quality race in January 2025 — and returned to the same track twelve months later in January 2026 to do it again. Repeating a performance a year apart at the same venue, at age 11, is the kind of thing that makes people stop and take notice.

His regular jockey, Harry Skelton, describes him as probably the hardest ride of his career — enthusiastic to the point of being difficult to control, keen early, and running with his head tilted to one side. Skelton has won 4 of their 20 races together, a 20% win rate, and sounds almost fond of the challenge. The quote that sticks is simple: "he's a racehorse — he wants to run." For a horse now in his twelfth year, with a plan in place for Aintree and possibly Cheltenham's Ryanair Chase if the field cuts up, that desire shows no sign of fading.