FOR an investment in late May at the Goffs UK Spring Sale of £7,000, trainer Dan Skelton and agent Ryan Mahon secured the eight-year-old gelding Here Comes Georgie for Bill Hawkins. On Saturday at Cheltenham the son of Geordieland (Johann Quatz) provided the owner with his biggest success and took home a lucrative pot of more than £50,000.

Here Comes Georgie was making his first start from Skelton’s Warwickshire yard, and with the stable in such blistering form he was sent off favourite. It was a step into the unknown running over three miles and a furlong, given that the gelding had never tackled a distance further than two and a half miles. Skelton looks unstoppable now as he seeks another trainers’ championship, and as I write his winnings are almost £1.1 million, while his tally of victories is more than the next three trainers combined – Olly Murphy, Mickey Bowen and Jonjo and AJ O’Neill.

You might wonder what the champion trainer is doing with a £7,000 ‘cast off’, but Skelton explained all in his post-race interview. He said: “It’s a big team effort - we go to the sales and buy all sorts, some expensive ones, and some cheap ones. Last year we bought Thistle Ask for £11,000 and we bought this one for seven. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t - he is one that has worked out.

Will stay

“He caught my eye at Ascot last season, and I just thought if he could get back to some form like that [he might be okay]. I only ran him here because he was in the handicap at the entry stage. He is by Geordieland out of a King’s Theatre mare and I thought maybe he will stay. If he gets in the Coral Gold Cup [Newbury] he’ll go for that or otherwise we’ll see if he gets in the Becher [Aintree]. I’m not going to come down in grade. I’ll try and fly as high as we can as the handicapper is going to try and bump him up. We want to try and keep him in as good a race as we can with the lowest weight for as long as possible.”

The £11,000 price for Thistle Ask, formerly trained by James Ewart, followed his second win, one each over hurdles and fences. He transformed with the move to Skelton, winning his first four starts over fences. They included a Grade 3 at Wetherby, the Grade 2 Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter and the Grade 2 Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton. Thistle Ask was three lengths second to Jonbon in the Grade 1 Clarence House Chase, but disaster struck when he was fatally injured at Sandown. He amassed £200,000 after his purchase.

Swanbridge Bloodstock

Can Skelton do the same with Here Comes George? Bred by Swanbridge Bloodstock, Here Comes Georgie first appeared in a ring at the 2019 Goffs UK January Sale, and he sold for £1,400. He must have appealed on conformation as the next time he was sold, it was from John Bleahen’s Lakefield Farm as a three-year-old. That was in the Tattersalls Ireland May Sale, and Kevin Brouder bought him for €8,000. Patrick Neville trained him and his six wins from that yard included four hurdle successes.

Here Comes Georgie went on to run five times for trainer Dylan Cunha, all over the larger obstacles, but his form was in and out. Even so, at his best he was well capable, and now Dan Skelton has got him back to his absolute best.

His sire Geordieland won seven races, from nine furlongs to two miles, and among them were three Group 2 triumphs. Were it not for the brilliant Yeats, he would have won two editions of the Group 1 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, a race in which he was also third. He retired to stud at Beech Tree Stud in Somerset where he had moderate success. Three of his sons and one daughter were all runners-up in blacktype races over jumps.

Well connected

On the dam side of the family, Here Comes Georgie is well connected, though he is just one of a pair of foals produced by the bumper-placed King’s Theatre (Sadler’s Wells) mare Royale Performance. Her only other offspring was Way Past Midnight (Midnight Legend), a point-to-point winner on her sole start between the flags but who then showed nothing on the racecourse. She had no recorded offspring.

Royale Performance’s full-brother Kingcora (King’s Theatre) sold as a three-year-old for €170,000 in France after winning over jumps in France. He joined Venetia Williams and won two minor chases some years later. Kingcora was one of four winners out of seven-time jumps winner Coralisse Royale (Tip Moss). She raced an amazing 58 times, placed a few times in listed races, and produced 10 foals at stud.

Coralisse Royale’s son Dicosimo (Laveron) won for Arnaud Chaille-Chaille, Willie Mullins and Warren Greatrex, and his six wins were headlined with success in a listed hurdle race in Limerick. Coralisse Royale’s five successful siblings had Millenium Royal (Mansonnien) among them. He was trained by Francois Doumenand won the Grade 1 Grand d’Automne Hurdle. He travelled for a number of wins in England too.