By Peter Moore at Newbury Wednesday 17th December 2025
The all-conquering Skelton yard were celebrating another unique milestone after bringing up the £2m mark for the season after Kadastral landed the 2m ½ f maiden hurdle at Newbury on BetVictor Christmas Raceday.
The five-year-old secured his second win from just four starts after seeing off the challenge of Legal Weapon by two lengths with Harry Skelton aboard.
A bumper winner at Newbury in March, Kadastral went one better than his Chepstow second and was cut to 33-1 (from 50) with Paddy Power for the Turners Novices’ Hurdle, but Skelton believes the two-length winner would be better suited to Aintree.
Skelton said: “He’s a very talented horse. We’ve seen a lot of improvement, but I’ll look after him now.
“I don’t think you’ll see him at Cheltenham – he’s more likely to wait and go to Aintree. That’s not because he’s not Cheltenham standard – I feel he is – but he’s a tall and narrow horse, and the right thing to do is to tread carefully as a novice hurdler.”
Skelton also expects Kadastral to excel over fences.
He said: “I don’t want to go and find out what he can’t do, I’d rather get him in the right races and make him the best he can be. He’s a very good horse, but some are going to be significantly better over a fence, and this one puts himself into that category. If we’re going to win a Graded race, I feel like it’ll be at Aintree rather than Cheltenham.”
Cowbridge trainer Tim Vaughan enjoys his visits to the Berkshire track and made it three winners from his last six runners at Newbury after Love Sonnet defied a penalty after winning at Hereford last month to make it back-to-back victories after pulling clear of the field to win by eight lengths from Cayman Dancer.
After landing a novice hurdle on his debut at Ascot 26 days ago, Kripticjim completed another victory after staying on strongly to fend off the challenge of Trial By Jury by ¾ length in the 2m 4 1/2f novices hurdle for Joe Tizzard with Brendan Powell in the plate.
Mighty Bandit built on his promising debut over fences by winning the 2m½f handicap chase for Warren Greatrex.
The five-year-old finished second at 50-1 in the Fulke Walwyn Trophy last month at the course, but went one better when defeating the 13-8 favourite Highlands Legacy by 1 ¾ lengths.
Anthony Honeyball has a fine record in the concluding bumper on this card in the past couple of years after saddling the winner in 2023 and second last year. This year he went one better when Lady Litigator ran on gamely in a sustained dual with Galaxy Star to just prevail towards the line by a head, with the front two five lengths clear of Crystal Connemara in third.