Kabral Du Mathan

He is trained by Dan Skelton at Alcester in Warwickshire, and the yard is in blistering form this season — 194 winners and counting, which is the kind of number that tells you this is one of the most efficient training operations in the country right now. Skelton tends not to run horses for the sake of it, and Kabral Du Mathan reflects that philosophy: eight races in, every single one has mattered.

The horse made his first mark at Huntingdon in January 2024, and by November 2025 he had stepped up to win at Haydock in one of the better races outside the top tier. Then came the big one. On New Year's Day 2026, he won a top-level race at Cheltenham — the most important racecourse in Britain for jump racing — beating the kind of horses that have been doing this for years. Skelton's words afterwards were telling: he pointed out that you "don't take the wrong approach by being patient" with a young horse, but also acknowledged the difficult question of whether a six-year-old, still relatively inexperienced, can grind out three miles against battle-hardened rivals.

That tension has shaped what comes next. Skelton held the idea of stepping him up to a famous long-distance race at Cheltenham's spring festival, and his work at home was described as very good. But after a run at Cheltenham in which the horse travelled beautifully and jumped brilliantly yet couldn't quite sustain his effort to the line, the trainer's conclusion was clear-eyed: he simply doesn't stay three miles yet. The pace he runs at costs him late on. The response? Drop back to two and a half miles, and — interestingly — switch to fences. Jockey Harry Skelton suggested it when he dismounted, and his trainer agreed. That move, when it comes, will be one to watch.