Skeltons are just Champion at Ayr Ch'tibello (8/1) defied a 142-day layoff to win the QTS Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr for Dan and Harry Skelton. The trainer and jockey brothers had already taken one of the biggest handicap hurdles of the National Hunt season with Superb Story - who also hadn't run for several months - in the County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March and they repeated the feat as Ch'tibello landed the Grade Two handicap. Jockey Harry Skelton was happy settled in behind the leaders as Sternrubin and Zamdy Man took it in turns to act as pace-setter, but he wasn't no time in pouncing approaching the second last flight of hurdles, having bypassed the third-last. Ch'tibello scooted away from the chasing pack and always looked in command from that point, despite a mistake at the last, while Malcolm Jefferson's Cloudy Dream flew home on the run-in to claim second and leave the Willie Mullins-trained Clondaw Warrior back in third, but he was a length and a quarter behind the impressive winner. Skelton told Channel 4 Racing: "With him and Superb Story we knew we had good horses to work with. "I'm glad we didn't get much of that forecast rain last night." Owner Ian Narmion added: "Dan's been saying all season that he's the best handicapped horse in training."
