Harry Skelton spoke to ITV Racing moments after his second Coral Cup win at the Cheltenham Festival with Langer Dan.
“He’s brilliant. Look. 12 months of planning. We haven’t had it all plain sailing this year. To be fair I’ve had him out on the grass in the last few weeks” he said.
“He was getting bumped and banged about there and he was loving it. The more you put him in the race, the easier he is to ride and he is an easy horse to get competitive. He got knocked about up the hill there, and the more that happens the more he thrives,” said Harry Skelton.
“Dan (Skelton) just leaves it up to me and it’s a great long term plan. He hasn’t actually been in good form as he has been in the winter. They’ve been in smaller races and we’ve ridden him cold today. Rode him a bit differently and it happened and that’s where the improvement comes!” Harry Skelton explained.
Trainer, Dan Skelton, brother of jockey Harry, also spoke to ITV Racing and wasn’t too hopeful for Langer Dan’s chances ahead of the Coral Cup.
He said “that was remarkable really and a credit to the horse. I have to say I’ve never been prouder of a result than this and we’ve had some big winners too. This is the thing that people don’t know, this horse has a surgery and never made it to Aintree. Langer Dan just loves Cheltenham.”
Langer Dan’s journey wasn’t the smoothest to get to Cheltenham as his character and personality can be difficult to train.
Dan Skelton explained, “he had a terrible winter, he bled on one occasion had ulcers and all sorts wrong with him. It was a massive team effort and the girl beside him, Amber, she runs our second yard and he won’t train on our main yard. He’s just a quirky little character. Just never been prouder of the team effort and the result of the race.”
The trainer continued, “he’s a little legend, he’s tiny, he’s an important little fella. He just trains himself. He doesn’t play ball in the winter. He’s a nightmare.” “
“We worked him on Saturday and we said to Amber ‘just find the slowest horse we’ve got and somehow beat it on the gallop’ and she only won by a head. What is he like? He’s a little character but what a character” he said.
