Skelton anticipating more from Sud on sounder surface Harry Skelton was “absolutely delighted” to win the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase on Saturday with L’Eau Du Sud and believes he will be an even greater force on better ground. The Dan Skelton-trained grey was ultra-impressive on his penultimate run at Cheltenham on good ground but had to show another side to his character at Sandown. Up against two highly-regarded challengers from Gordon Elliott’s yard in Touch Me Not and Down Memory Lane, he cruised into contention before a slightly awkward leap at the last checked his momentum. He picked up well again despite the heavy ground, though, and he is now the general 6-1 second-favourite for the Arkle behind Ballyburn. “We were absolutely delighted to win the Henry VIII with L’Eau Du Sud. To have that Grade One on his CV now is fantastic. He got the job done in very testing ground, and he had to really get stuck in – it was great to see him do that,” Harry Skelton told his Star Sports blog. “He jumped great down the back and ground out a tough win. He had two horses behind him that had high ratings and he put them to bed fairly nicely, so it was a very encouraging run. “I think you saw at Cheltenham, when he was visually really impressive, that he springs off a little bit better ground, so what this performance showed was that he can go in all conditions. He showed he can win when the going is tough and that’s what you need, a fighter. “He’s three from three over fences, so we’ll now have a bit of a break and he’ll probably have one more run before he heads to the Arkle.”
