Mydaddypaddy could begin his Champion Hurdle campaign in Saturday’s Grade 2 William Hill Molyneux Hurdle at Aintree. Dan Skelton‘s five-year-old is one of six entries for the 1.45pm over two miles and a furlong, a race that has a new name and a new home this season after moving from Wincanton, where it was run as the Elite Hurdle.
Saturday also marks a return to the scene of his first career defeat. Here is everything you need to know about the son of Walk In The Park before his reappearance.
Mydaddypaddy’s flawless start and Aintree reverse
Mydaddypaddy has won three of his five starts, and the first three of those went exactly to plan. He made a winning debut in a bumper at Huntingdon in March 2025, going clear readily at 15/8 under Harry Skelton, before winning a maiden hurdle at Carlisle at 1/2 and an introductory hurdle at Haydock at 1/5, both easily.
Those wins earned him a crack at the Grade 1 Formby Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree on Boxing Day, and he was sent off the 8/13 favourite. He travelled strongly from the rear and went second before the final flight, but found no extra in the closing stages and was beaten three-and-a-quarter lengths by Harry Fry‘s Idaho Sun.
Part of Britain’s Supreme clean sweep
Mydaddypaddy was briefly ante-post favourite for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle last season and showed he belonged in the top novice company at Cheltenham in March. Sent off at 6/1, he was challenging strongly when hampered on the run-in.
He kept on to finish third, beaten a length-and-a-half and a nose by Nicky Henderson’s Old Park Star and Sober Glory, with Alan King’s Baron Noir completing a British one-two-three-four. The handicapper rated him 154 afterwards, and with a clearer passage he could easily have finished second, or even threatened Old Park Star’s victory.
Champion Hurdle the long-term target
Unlike many of last season’s leading novice hurdlers, Mydaddypaddy is staying over hurdles, and Skelton has confirmed the Champion Hurdle is the aim. With Old Park Star expected to go chasing, he is one of the few young British hurdlers who could put it up to Lossiemouth in March.
That is a big ask on what he has achieved so far, and our Jumps Journal questioned whether the Supreme form was strong enough. A smart reappearance on Merseyside would go a long way to answering those doubts.
Mange Tout and Alexei lead the opposition
The Molyneux will not be a penalty kick. Gordon Elliott’s Mange Tout won the Grade 1 Anniversary Juvenile Hurdle over this course and distance in April at 5/1, and she was taken out of a Listed hurdle at Down Royal last Friday because of the ground.
Joe Tizzard’s Alexei brings the most experience. He won the Greatwood Hurdle and the Grade 2 Kingwell Hurdle last season and was fourth in the Champion Hurdle, where a bad mistake at the last may have cost him second, before finishing third in the Aintree Hurdle in April.
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