Paul Nicholls' assistant Dan Skelton to take out a training licence Skelton, 27, spoke to Nicholls, his landlord Paul Barber and headlad Clifford Baker last week to let them know his decision. It's a farm dad [Olympic showjumping gold medallist Nick Skelton] bought a few years ago. If I've learned one thing it is that you need an incline to train jumpers and this place fits the bill. We applied for planning to build some stables and a 6½-furlong gallop and it came through much quicker than we anticipated. At the moment I have no horses, no owners and the whole thing is very much in its infancy. I haven't even made any formal contact with the BHA or enrolled for any of the educational courses I need to complete. Obviously, it will be a start-up business so I would take Flat or jumpers, but clearly jumping will be the main focus. Having show-jumped to a junior international level, he said everything he had learned had come from his father who, he added, would be involved in the new venture alongside his brother, Harry, whose career as a jump jockey has stalled this season. The jockey expressed the hope that riding for his brother would help kick-start his career, which saw him win the Irish National as a conditional jockey. Nicholls, who broke the news in his Betfair column, said: "I obviously wish Dan all the best. He is a great friend above all else and I am incredibly proud to have played a part in Harry Fry's and Dan's progress to the training ranks. Simon Claisse, clerk of the course at Cheltenham, says their trials meeting on Saturday may hinge on how much snow they get tonight and into tomorrow. "A significant amount will put the meeting in jeopardy," he admitted. It's lying in patches on the covers but the ground is raceable underneath. The key will be whether the thaw comes soon enough to help us get rid of the snow. Nicky Henderson said on Sunday that while the loss of one weekend's racing was not too much of a problem, if a second consecutive weekend was lost it would start to become a major headache. Yesterday instead of having a normal quiet Sunday, Bobs Worth, Binocular, Grandouet and Oscar Whisky went for a long canter around his indoor ride. Henderson also reported that the reigning two-mile champion Finian's Rainbow is now back cantering again after a soft palate operation. "We've tinkered with his wind a bit," he explained. We did the same thing with Bobs Worth at Christmas last year. The plan is to find a race for him before Cheltenham and he'll be entered in everything from the Champion Chase to the Gold Cup. The gelding is 10-1 to retain his two mile crown, 9-1 to win the Ryanair and an interesting 50-1 for the Gold Cup.