Eclair D’Ainay’s Castleford Chase success the highlight of a Wetherby treble for Skelton brothers

CHAMPION jockey Harry Skelton and Eclair D’Ainay dominated the William Hill Castleford Chase to win the day two highlight of Wetherby’s Christmas meeting.

The centrepiece of a treble for the rider and his trainer brother Dan, the horse carried the evocative colours of veteran owner John Hales that will always be associated with the great steeplechaser One Man and horses like Politilogue who Skelton rode to victory in the 2020 Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham.

On tiring ground that had been shrouded in fog earlier on the card, the five-year-old galloped clear of Cheddleton and Nuts Well – two admirably consistent chasers in the North.

And, in doing so, Eclair D’Ainay franked the form of Good Boy Bobby who had won the feature Rowland Meyrick Chase at the West Yorkshire track on Boxing Day.

Both ran at Wetherby’s Charlie Hall Chase meeting in late October when Good Boy Bobby won a handicap chase in which Eclair D’Ainay was fourth for the in-form Skeltons who regularly target the track in their pursuit of winners.

Elsewhere, the Gary Moore-trained Porticello – winner of the Wensleydale Juvenile Hurdle at the Charlie Hall meeting – was an impressive winner of the Grade One Coral Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow.

The race saw jockey Tommy Dowson incur a 16-day ban for two careless riding offences aboard Catterick trainer Phil Kirby’s pacesetting Skycutter.

Meanwhile former Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jockey Sam Thomas recorded the biggest success of his burgeoning training career when Iwilldoit won the Welsh Grand National under jockey Stan Sheppard.

Just five horses finished a marathon race won by a Welsh-trained horse for a third successive year. The 2018 Gold Cup hero Native River was pulled up and retirement beckons.