Dan Skelton

Over the past twelve months, Skelton has trained 194 winners from 1,103 runners, winning roughly 1 in every 6 races he enters. That is a strong baseline for any yard. But the last two weeks tell an even more striking story: 10 winners from just 34 runners, a win rate of nearly 1 in 3. When a yard that already wins at that volume suddenly sharpens up like this, it usually means the horses are fit, healthy, and ready. Everything is clicking.

The partnership with his brother Harry Skelton in the saddle is the engine at the heart of the operation. In 541 rides together, Harry has ridden 119 winners for the yard — winning almost 1 in every 5, which is an exceptional hit rate for any trainer-jockey combination. There is an obvious shorthand between siblings that goes beyond tactics, and the numbers back it up.

Skelton's record at the top level is what separates him from trainers who simply pile up winners in smaller races. He has won 81 Class 1 races — the elite events that carry the most prestige in the sport — at venues including Cheltenham, Aintree, and Wetherby. In recent weeks alone he has taken Class 1 victories at Cheltenham on 10 March 2026 and Musselburgh on 31 January 2026, along with a winner at Haydock Park in February. These are not flukes. Winning at Cheltenham in particular is genuinely hard — the best horses from the best yards in Britain and Ireland all converge there, and Skelton keeps finding a way through.

One course worth picking out is Fakenham, a small, tight track in Norfolk where Skelton has won 7 times from just 14 runners — exactly half his runners there win. That is the kind of record that tells you a trainer knows a track inside out and sends the right horses there at the right time. Four years into his career, Dan Skelton already looks like one of the best in the business.