Harry Skelton celebrates after winning on The New Lion. Tom Maher/INPHO
Cheltenham
JP McManus celebrates 80th Cheltenham winner as The New Lion lands the Turners
Dan Skelton’s runner trumped Irish fancies Final Demand and The Yellow Clay.
1.50pm, 12 Mar 2025
THE NEW LION lived up to the hype with a battling victory in the Turners Novices’ Hurdle on the second day of the Cheltenham Festival.
The six-year-old is trained by Dan Skelton and was ridden by his brother Harry, who was sporting a black eye as well as the silks of his new owner JP McManus after the Kayf Tara gelding was purchased for a significant sum of money from Darren Yates.
The win is McManus’s second of the Festival so far — and a remarkable 80th overall.
He was a 3-1 chance and was ridden at the rear of the pack, stalking the Willie Mullins-trained 6-4 favourite Final Demand before breaking through the field to cross the line three-quarters of a length ahead of Gordon Elliott’s The Yellow Clay.
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Skelton said: “I always believed he’d win. In my heart, it just feels like it would take a very good one to get past this horse.
“I think he could be the best we’ve had, but this is uncharted territory for me as a trainer in my own right. When I worked for Paul (Nicholls) we had all those superstars, but I haven’t had a horse who can do things like this one.”
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JP McManus celebrates 80th Cheltenham winner as The New Lion lands the Turners
THE NEW LION lived up to the hype with a battling victory in the Turners Novices’ Hurdle on the second day of the Cheltenham Festival.
The six-year-old is trained by Dan Skelton and was ridden by his brother Harry, who was sporting a black eye as well as the silks of his new owner JP McManus after the Kayf Tara gelding was purchased for a significant sum of money from Darren Yates.
The win is McManus’s second of the Festival so far — and a remarkable 80th overall.
He was a 3-1 chance and was ridden at the rear of the pack, stalking the Willie Mullins-trained 6-4 favourite Final Demand before breaking through the field to cross the line three-quarters of a length ahead of Gordon Elliott’s The Yellow Clay.
Skelton said: “I always believed he’d win. In my heart, it just feels like it would take a very good one to get past this horse.
“I think he could be the best we’ve had, but this is uncharted territory for me as a trainer in my own right. When I worked for Paul (Nicholls) we had all those superstars, but I haven’t had a horse who can do things like this one.”
Cheltenham Horse Racing JP McManus The New Lion