Dan Skelton targets big-race double with Langer Dan after being eclipsed by Galopin Des Champs at the Cheltenham Festival last year
- Langer Dan, trained by Dan Skelton, won Sandown’s Imperial Cup in March
- But he was second behind Galopin Des Champs at Cheltenham six days later
- Galopin Des Champs has gone on to score impressive wins in two novice chases
Langer Dan will return this month to attempt the big-race double that eluded him last year.
The gelding, trained by Dan Skelton, won Sandown’s Imperial Cup in March but was second behind Galopin Des Champs in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival six days later.
Galopin Des Champs has gone on to score impressive wins in two novice chases and looks a future Gold Cup contender.
Dan Skelton will seek to go one better at Sandown and Cheltenham with Langer Dan
Skelton, who has pencilled Langer Dan in for a belated seasonal debut at Taunton in 11 days, said: ‘We bumped into a Grade One machine last season. Langer Dan was a little sensitive in his hind suspensory ligament and as we knew what we wanted, we thought to wait for the spring.’
Skelton’s Elle Est Belle landed the feature Sidney Banks Memorial Hurdle at Huntingdon on Thursday.
She could bypass Cheltenham for Aintree’s Grade One Mersey Novices’ Hurdle, which Skelton won last year with My Drogo.
