Rooster Booster dies on the gallops

Trainer Philip Hobbs said that the 11-year-old grey had "died of either a haemorrhage or a heart attack. We're not sure yet."

The 2003 Champion Hurdle winner, who was runner-up to Hardy Eustace the following year, had been due to compete in the Christmas Hurdle.

Rooster Booster was runner-up to Harchibald in that race at Kempton last year.

His regular rider Richard Johnson, who heard the news while on his way to yesterday's meeting at Fontwell, said that it had been "a big shock.

"He gave me one of the highlights of my career winning the Champion Hurdle. It was a fantastic day and I'll never forget him," said the jockey, who rode him to seven of his 10 career victories.

The Riverwise gelding, owned by Terry Warner, graduated from the handicapping ranks to lift the Cheltenham Festival feature two years ago.

Rooster Booster had run with credit in a string of big races before landing a deserved success in the County Hurdle at the Festival in 2002.

He proved a revelation the following season, notching up a sequence of five wins including the Bula Hurdle before landing the Champion Hurdle itself.

Hobbs's charge won the 2004 Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock before putting up an amazing performance to be beaten just a short head in the Gold Trophy at Newbury, despite shouldering top weight.

Rooster Booster had failed to hit his previous heights last season, but he won on his seasonal bow at Huntingdon before disappointing in the Greatwood Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham last month.