Dan Skelton has issued a heartfelt tribute after announcing the death of dual Cheltenham Festival winner Langer Dan to a heart condition.

Owned by Colm Donlon, the ten-year-old won back-to-back runnings of the Coral Cup at the festival in 2023 and 2024, and was retired last March after being found to have an underlying heart problem.

Skelton said: “He was quite a remarkable little horse. He was always one of those horses who everyone loved, and we felt the same way. He was his own character. He captured the imagination of everyone because he was a competitor.”

Langer Dan ran 27 races for Skelton, and as well as two victories at the Cheltenham Festival, he won a Grade Three at Aintree in 2022, the Grade Three Paddy Power Imperial Cup in March 2021, and finished second behind subsequent Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs at Cheltenham the following week.

Langer Dan was diagnosed with a rare heart condition, whereby his heart was expanding, shortly after the final run of his career at Windsor last January.

By Peter Moore