‘It’s the hardest thing we’ve ever set out to do’: Dan Skelton sets his team a high bar with ‘Operation 244’
When Dan Skelton finally captured the jump trainers’ trophy in April with unprecedented prize money after a three-year tussle with Willie Mullins, the focus turned to how many more records he would set
Dan Skelton keeps his cards close to his chest when it comes to the secrets of his success: “I had to learn the hard way, so everyone else can learn the hard way and all!” But a sign hanging on his wall offers a clear insight into the mindset of the newly crowned champion trainer. “I don’t want to be beige,” it reads, and that’s certainly not something of which you could accuse this record-breaking, relentlessly ambitious, convention-defying 41-year-old.
Since establishing Lodge Hill 13 years ago, Dan has propelled his team on an upward trajectory, creating a slick, hugely successful racing behemoth.
Even during those tentative early years, the signs were there that a champion trainer elect was operating from this rural corner of Warwickshire as the winners quickly rolled in. But it was only as recently as 2024 that Dan first came within touching distance of the title, only to be steamrolled by Irish maestro Willie Mullins on the final days of the season for two successive years, in one of the most enthralling battles in racing history.
In sport, you have to suffer the lows to appreciate the highs and, setting the bar even higher last season, Dan amassed a record £5,045,615 in prize money during a relentless 12-month campaign and the curtain came down at Sandown in April with the Alcester handler finally crowned champion.
Surrounded by dozens of his close-knit team, family and friends, Dan was handed the silverware by his former boss Paul Nicholls, a moment he describes as hugely emotional.
“It felt like winning the championship took a long time – it didn’t all come to the door,” offers Dan. “But breaking the £5m barrier was probably the most remarkable achievement. Willie put us into a position where we needed to go somewhere that no one had gone before in order to beat him.
“In hindsight, we should have won the championship that first year Willie beat us, but I didn’t see it coming. It was only having four Cheltenham Festival winners that springboarded us in with a chance; if I had my time again, I would have been better organised. The following year, I was as organised as I could be, we got everything right and he still beat us. But both times he had to win the Grand National – the hardest task in the racing calendar – to do it, so that was phenomenal.
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“But look, it just shows that nothing is guaranteed. Sometimes you get beat and if you do, you pull your socks up and go again. I’m not afraid of getting beat – sometimes you learn things from it.
“I grew up around this mentality. I worked for Paul for nine-and-a-half years and every year the objective was to be champion trainer. Before that, my father [Nick Skelton] held this one goal above all else, which was to win an individual Olympic gold medal. So I’ve been motivated by those two things to achieve this,” he says.
● £5,045,615 in prize money won in 2025/26
● First person to train a winner at all 41 jump tracks in one season
● Dan saddled 27 winners in his first season (2013/14), and is aiming for an unprecedented 244 winners this season
● Broke his own record as the fastest trainer to reach a century of winners in one season
● Protektorat is their first horse to win more than £1m
● Harry Skelton entered the top 10 winning-most jump jockeys of all time at Stratford in August
Never one to dwell, no matter how mighty the accomplishment, Dan began his first season as champion trainer with another clear statement of intent: he’s going bigger and better than ever. While most jump trainers wind down during the off-season, Dan was out of the traps faster than a whippet back in May, enjoying his most successful summer ever. Even before the calendar shifted into top gear this month, Dan had extended a sizeable lead in this year’s title race, with more than 100 winners and £800,000 in the bank.
A second trainers’ championship is high on the agenda but, moving the goalposts slightly, Dan has set a new target for his team: Operation 244.
Twenty-six years ago, revolutionary jump trainer Martin Pipe saddled a record 243 winners in one season, an astonishing achievement that has never been surpassed. Martin was at the top of his game when Dan entered the racing industry and “the thorn in Paul Nicholls’ side” when the two went toe-to-toe during the early days of Dan’s apprenticeship with the now 14-time champion.
“Martin was the last trainer to gain a massive advantage in the sport,” says Dan. “He thought outside the box; he wasn’t afraid to try new things and he revolutionised fitness. Nowadays we’re all dealing with micro-advantages and marginal gains – I don’t think anyone will have another big swipe like he did. But we’ve all been able to see much further by standing on his shoulders and that’s the ultimate compliment. He changed the sport.
“So I’ve always known about the 243-winner record and, after last year, I thought if we could just strengthen our team with a few select purchases, a nice bunch of summer horses could give us a springboard and we could make this happen.”
Underlining the enormity of it, he cautions, “I think it’s the hardest thing we’ve ever set out to do. We need to stay on the trajectory we’re on, maintaining that consistent standard of winners, for the next eight months.
“It doesn’t give me sleepless nights because we are controlling all the controllables and we’re using all the science and everything else we can to keep the horses healthy. I believe we have the best people behind us and the horses to do it. Sometimes things just come a-knocking and there’s nothing we can do about it. But to achieve it would be incredible and it’s something interesting for the sport to follow too.”
The first signs of a seasonal shift are in the air and the yard is in full throttle when we catch up with Dan in late September. The summer horses are enjoying their final runs just as the winter crew are being ramped up ready to be unleashed.
The network of gallops at Lodge Hill has been topped up, the arenas resurfaced and a new cross-country schooling area built for the youngsters to “enjoy something different”.
A powerful team ethos is central to daily life at Lodge Hill and the backbone to Dan’s success on the track. He estimates to have between 85 and 100 people managing the 170 horses in training over the winter months.
Dan may carry the weight of the world on his shoulders at times but “keeping positivity around the place” is top priority.
“Everyone’s pulling their weight and everyone is oriented around success,” he explains. “The ultimate goal is set and I’ve referred to it as our North Star – it keeps us constant.
“I’m indebted to the team, they’re brilliant. Most of them have been with us for a long time. They get it – they’re passionate, winning people. It’s great to harness that.”
Home-grown jockey Tristan Durrell was crowned champion conditional on the same day Dan earned his trainer’s crown and of course Dan’s “phenomenal” brother Harry, who became one of the top 10 winning-most jump jockeys of all time with his 1,590th winner in August, rakes in the vast majority of Dan’s winners, while also becoming more intrinsically involved in the back-room side of things.
With Dan and Harry currently pole position in both their respective championships, might they accomplish a truly historic double this season?
“When it was possible for Harry to be champion jockey in 2021, I took it as seriously as I could and worked tirelessly to make that happen for him, then he made it happen for me,” says Dan.
Harry has ridden most of his brother’s winners
The same owners who bought into Dan’s quest for the championship last season are now fully behind Operation 244 as well.
“They’re the most important part. Yes, they have their own horses’ best interests at heart, but they absolutely get behind our team ethos and ambition and enjoy that their horses add into this possibility. That’s something I feel most proud of, most humbled even, as that’s something we’ve worked so hard to create – we’re all in this together,” he says.
“I’m fully aware that having 170 horses to run in the winter makes it one of the biggest strings ever in UK National Hunt racing. But I’m also very confident to say it’s well managed, it’s high quality and nothing gets missed. Our results would suggest that, right?
“It can feel busy at times, but it’s manageable. It makes a healthy, competitive atmosphere.”
Always on the phone, constant communication is part of the job
Stable stars waiting in the wings include The New Lion, Protektorat and Panic Attack, with multi-Grade One-winning Grey Dawning set to make his seasonal reappearance next month. Younger talent is ready to step up, while Dan believes this season’s team of novice chasers are his best yet.
“We feel very lucky to have a team that can stretch across all formats,” he says.
Talk over the summer has centred around the astronomical sums changing hands in the sale ring and Dan has been the beneficiary of some headline-making purchases, including JP McManus’s €500,000 acquisition Walkonseas. Horses like King George runner-up Il Est Francais have changed yards, and high-profile owners including Harry Redknapp are now investing in the new champion.
Dan’s championship breakthrough feels like the start of a new era of supremacy for the Warwickshire yard; it’s possible even that Martin Pipe’s record as 15-time champion could eventually be smashed.
“The championship is a nice constant to aim for, but it definitely doesn’t feel easier even now we’ve achieved it once,” says Dan. “When you’re behind, you can see the finish line and all you have to do is catch the leader. As soon as you start to make the running, you’re the one to be aimed at and people want to work out how to beat you – you don’t know where the finish line is or even what it looks like. So the dynamics have changed but the focus hasn’t.”
The trophy has pride of place in the kitchen at the home he shares with wife Grace and daughter Flo; a pleasing daily reminder of what he’s achieved. Is obsession too strong a word for life in the Skelton household?
“I’ve not been obsessed with being champion trainer, I’m obsessed with being a trainer and all that entails. I just love what I do,” he says.
“We don’t want to amble through life, we have the foot firmly on the gas and we’re trying to make this something special. We want to be as good as we can be, perhaps break some records and make some people happy along the way; then we can feel that it was all worthwhile.”
Horses to watch this season
Dan says: “We’re lucky to have so many nice horses but these two should really step forward over the next two or three years. They’re young but very talented, so we’re doing everything we can to make them the best they can be.
“They don’t have to be at their best this year. Obviously you can ask them questions and ask them for big performances in big races, but it’s all about building, like we did with Grey Dawning, without overdoing things.”
Maestro Conti
4yo chestnut gelding by Prince Gibraltar out of Valdivia (Samum)
Owners: Hales, Speelman, Mason, Hogarth and Ferguson
Breeder: Patrick Joubert
Best results: won Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle, Cheltenham, 2026, runner-up Triumph Hurdle, Cheltenham Festival 2026
Mydaddypaddy
5yo bay gelding by Walk In The Park out of Debdebdeb (Teofilo)
Owner/breeder: Dermot Hanafin
Best results: hurdle wins at Huntingdon, Carlisle and Haydock, runner-up Formby Novices’ Hurdle, Aintree 2025, third Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Cheltenham Festival 2026
Jennifer is passionate at showjumping and her role as H&H’s showjumping editor has taken her around the world reporting from shows and interviewing riders, connections and those involved behind the scenes. Since joining H&H from BBC Sport in 2005, she has written on every subject across the equestrian sphere — from turnout rugs to stable management — and has interviewed gold medallists, world champions and winners galore. She also has first-hand experience of working in the equestrian industry as a riding instructor and yard manager.