Il Est Francais really is something special

Some people seem to get all the bad luck. No Cheltenham Festival regular will ever forget the 2020 Triumph Hurdle when Goshen, trained by Gary Moore and ridden by son Jamie, came to the final hurdle coasting and 12 lengths in the lead, only to make a fractional misjudgment and hurl his rider into the turf. The communal ‘Oh my God, no’ gasp of horror that swept the stands lives for ever in my mind.

But for the Moores things got worse. In December that year Jamie broke his back. In May 2022, brother Josh nearly died after a fall in which he broke his leg, many ribs and suffered a punctured lung – injuries which forced him to quit the saddle. In December that year, the young hurdling star Porticello, Gary’s first Grade One winner over hurdles, died in a Newbury fall and last November Jamie was back in the wars after a Lingfield tumble in which he fractured a vertebra, broke ribs and his nose and suffered concussion. I doubt therefore if there was a single racegoer this Christmas who resented what happened to the battered, if ever-cheery and practical Moores.

As the rain pelted down at Chepstow the day after Boxing Day, Jamie was there in a neckbrace representing his father. The runners and riders in the Welsh Grand National, their colours almost indistinguishable, came up the straight looking like creatures from a Roald Dahl film extravaganza who had been sprayed with melted chocolate. Just one looked a little cleaner: the Moores’ Nassalam, the 9-2 joint favourite who had been in the leading few throughout, came home to win 34 lengths clear of his field. He made it look easy. In the previous race, a juvenile hurdle, the Moore-trained three-year-old Salver put himself in this year’s Triumph Hurdle picture by coming 21 lengths clear of the field.

Meanwhile at Kempton inbetween those two signal victories for the West Sussex yard the talented but not-always-consistent two-miler Editeur Du Gite won the Desert Orchid Chase for the second year running.