Staff Reporter
The Cheltenham Festival is now growing ever closer and one horse with strong Spanish ties is being put through his final paces in preparation for lining up at the biggest horse racing spectacle in the sport.
Spain may not have strong ties with horse racing, particularly the jump racing sphere, but the Spanish-bred, Nube Negra, continues to fly the flag. He is once again ready to take on the best horses in the business at the prestigious Cheltenham meeting.
Nube Negra At Cheltenham
Purchased by young English trainer, Dan Skelton, after a far-from-flattering career as a flat racer in Spain, Nube Negra has become a high-class performer over jumps. Two Cheltenham Festival appearances have yielded placed efforts in the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle and the Queen Mother Champion Chase, and it is the latter that the now 9-year-old will be lining up in 2023.
The best horse racing betting markets have Nube Negra priced at 16/1 to go one better than he did in 2021, and that could prove to be a very generous offer that can be taken advantage of with bookmaker, Paddy Power.
If you do take the ante-post price on Dan Skelton’s star but can’t tune in to see the Spanish sensation compete, Paddy Power horse racing results will instantly inform you of the outcome.
Punters will be hoping that the results will show that Nube Negra has made it to the top of the mountain in the 2-mile chasing division, having gone so close to adding his name to the prestigious list of winners of the coveted race in 2021.
The striking brown gelding was beaten just 1/2 length on that occasion, where a stumble at the last fence had a huge bearing on the result.
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Nube Negra’s previous experience of the four-day meeting came in 2018, where, despite being very inexperienced at jumping, he came to within 4 lengths of winning the Fred Winter Juvenile Hurdle.
The Apple Of Skelton’s Eye
Nube Negra pic.twitter.com/oQRkN1Vz6O
— Nick Seddon (@NickSeddon_) February 14, 2023
As stated, Nube Negra achieved very little in his career in Spain, but trainer, Dan Skelton, obviously saw something in the young horse that many others didn’t. The son of the legendary show jumper, Nick, Dan purchased the horse out of J A Lopez’s stables for owner, Terry Spraggett, and quickly began preparing him for life over fences.
It proved to be an inspired decision by Skelton, as he and his jockey brother, Harry, molded Nube Negra into one of the finest jumpers to have run under their names.
The brothers have spoken of the high regard in which they keep the horse, and it is easy to see why, as Nube Negra has provided them with some of the best days of their careers. Despite having failed to win a Grade 1 at this stage, Nube Negra is one of the most consistent horses in training and has amassed nearly £350,000 in prize money.
Skelton will be hoping that his stable star will be able to open his Grade 1 account at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, but if that fails to materialise, he knows that it won’t be through lack of effort from the apple of his eye.
