Dan going extra Milos in title race

VICTORY for Le Milos in the £100,000 Unibet Middle Distance Veterans’ Handicap Chase at Haydock would be very welcome for Warwickshire-based trainer Dan Skelton, as he valiantly attempts to fend off the might of Willie Mullins.

- By NICK ROBSON

For the second year in a row Skelton has seen a sizeable advantage in the trainers’ title race rapidly diminish, after Mullins dominated at Cheltenham, took the lion’s share of the £1 million on offer in the Grand National and then had the one-two in last week-end’s Scottish National.

Races with this amount of prize-money - with £51,440 for first place - away from the big meetings are rare, and with Mullins not hav-ing a runner, it is a good chance for Skelton to pull away before the Clouston machine rolls into Plumpton and Perth over the next few days.