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.