Protektorat heads a field of eight declared runners for the Fitzdares Fleur De Lys Chase on the final day of the Berkshire Winter Million at Royal Windsor Racecourse on Sunday. The 10-year-old posted a career-best when landing the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival last year but is yet to reach those heights this term.
Dan Skelton said, ““Protektorat is in really good form, we were always going to come here. He was second in the race last year at Lingfield. He’s had a couple of runs this season already which is good because he likes to be out. We’ve trained him for his but how he handles Windsor we will see.”
He added, “It wasn’t soft enough and he needed it at Cheltenham in the Paddy Power, then it was a disaster going right-handed at Huntingdon which just didn’t work out. He’s a different horse going left-handed. If you look last year his runs got better and better throughout the season.”
The Venetia Williams-trained Djelo slammed Protektorat last time out when he was a runaway winner of the Trustatrader Peterborough Chase (G2) by six lengths, and is evidently still improving. Ahoy Senor is on a retrieval mission after being pulled-up in the Betfair Chase (G1) last time, but is never one to fully write off.
Pic D’Orhy has an impressive record when fresh and he has not been seen since winning his second renewal of the Copybet 1965 Chase at Ascot on his seasonal reappearance. The sole Irish challenger in the lineup is the talented Journey With Me who has found it tough at the top level in Ireland on each of his previous two starts.
Completing the field of eight is the unbeaten Indiana Dream who will make his stable debut for Jonjo & A J O’Neill but has evidently been difficult to train, as well as Le Patron and the Seamus Mullins-trained Tommie Beau.
72 runners have been declared on an eight-race card where there is over £450,000 in prize money up for grabs.
Minella Missile is a hugely interesting runner in the £65,000 Weatherbys Racing Bank Handicap Hurdle. The unbeaten 7-year-old marked himself out as a horse with a big future ahead of him when landing The Hyde Novices’ Hurdle (G2) at Cheltenham in November 2023. However, he has not been seen since then and this will be his first start in 429 days.
Git Maker, better known as a chaser, will make his seasonal debut in this presumably with a big spring target over fences in mind. Samuel Spade has been running well in some competitive handicaps this seaso without winning, but his trainer Ben Pauling believes he may soon be able to regain the winning thread.
He said: “He is becoming quite a consistent horse and I think he is about to land on a very decent prize. He ran well last time out on Boxing Day. He seems in very good order since and likes to come from off the pace. He drops himself out, follows round and comes through at the end. I think the step up to 3m could be very interesting to try.”
Nine runners have been declared for the £50,000 Fitzdares Great Park Handicap Chase where the improving Matata heads the weights for Nigel Twiston-Davies. The 7-year-old was beaten a neck at Kelso last time, but is a horse on an upward curve.
Martator failed in his bid to register a six-timer at Kempton over Christmas but may have been unsuited by the emphasis on speed then, and is most certainly a player with Charlie Deutsch onboard once again.
Dan Skelton runs Cheltenham Festival winner Unexpected Party, the enigmatic Harper’s Brook and Etalon who is yet to find his spark this season.
Dan Skelton said: “Unexpected Party is getting on a bit now so we will never forget what he did but it is becoming harder to repeat with the handicapper not relenting. Harpers Brook won last time out for us under a pretty cool ride from Kielan Woods at Wetherby. There were loads of question marks with him when he arrived here but just a couple of runs for us helped us understand him and what he wanted. We know what to do and what not to do.”
The action will kick off at 12:10pm with the Hampton Novices' Chase set to be run over 3m. Racing will conclude at 4:10pm with the Fitzdares Berkshire Winter Million Open National Hunt Flat Race over 2m6f. The going is currently described as Soft.
