Nap of the Day: Skeltons can strike again with 2/1 mare

I'm still not quite sure how Thursday's selection got beat, but there's no time to dwell as we go back on the search for a winning Nap of the Day.

It's to Exeter we turn on Friday, eyeing one for a duo in red-hot form.

What a start to the season the Skeltons have made. Dan is comfortably leading the Trainers' Championship standings at present and has enjoyed 16 winners from 62 runners (26% strike rate) in the past fortnight. Meanwhile, brother Harry has ridden 14 of 51 (27%) to success in that same timeframe.

That bodes well for Friday's Nap - COCO MADEMOISELLE who goes in this three-mile handicap chase at Exeter.

The six-year-old mare was a fairly expensive (£100k) purchase just weeks after beating El Elefante, now rated 130 for Lucinda Russell, in an Irish PTP in January last year, and she made the perfect start under rules by taking a Wetherby bumper in good style just months later.

Put away for the summer, she then went novice hurdling and showed ability among inconsistency in six starts.

However, as a daughter of Doyen out of a Presenting mare recruited from the PTP scene, she was always likely to prove better over fences - and she duly made a highly-encouraging start in that sphere at Worcester the other week.

She jumped superbly from start to finish and was only just touched off by the 142-rated Hometown Boy, who won his previous start by a mere 10 lengths.

Six lengths behind the selection in third was Weveallbeencaught, who was a narrow second in a competitive handicap at Cheltenham's Showcase Meeting next time out, and trailing a further four lengths was a subsequent winner who's since been raised five pounds by the handicapper.

That's a strong piece of form and I'm surprised Coco Mademoiselle's mark of just 122 is unchanged. Pleasantly surprised, mind.

If that race at Worcester was a handicap, Coco Mademoiselle would have received a further seven pounds from the winner, which would surely have seen the placings reversed and resulted in a hike in the weights.

I suspect she's worthy of a rating in the late 120s and therefore rates a well-handicapped type as she drops straight back into handicap company on her second go over the bigger obstacles.

To my eye, this doesn't look much tougher than her previous assignment and she rates a strong fancy at 2/1.

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