Dan Skelton and Paul Nicholls have already broken well clear of the pack in the race to reclaim the UK trainers’ championship from Willie Mullins, but they could only stand and watch from the minor spots in the winner’s enclosure on Friday as Jonjo O’Neill’s resurgent stable – with his son, AJ, now also on the licence – claimed the Grade Two Winter Novice Hurdle with Bill Joyce.
O’Neill Sr has saddled winners of the Cheltenham Gold Cup and, most famously, the Grand National, giving Tony McCoy his much-delayed winner of the Aintree showpiece in 2010. But having finished fifth in the championship race as recently as 2020-21, his Jackdaw’s Castle estate – one of the most modern and well-equipped training complexes in the country – has bumped along in the mid-to-high teens for the past three seasons.
