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.

The communal ‘Oh my God, no’ gasp of horror that swept the stands lives for ever in my mind

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. Typically of a tightly knit stable team, the two Chepstow winners were partnered by Caoilin Quinn and Editeur Du Gite by Niall Houlihan, the stable conditionals and not by imported star jockeys.

I suspect team Moore will have had a few chuckles too over the events on the all-weather track at Lingfield just a few days before. On 20 December, the yard’s Cephalus, ridden by Frankel’s long-time partner Tom Queally – who should always be noted partnering a Moore inmate – came home a one-length winner over a mile. Eleventh of 14 on his previous run and plumb last on two runs before that, Cephalus had been backed down from 33-1 in the morning to start as the 6-4 favourite. Asked by the stewards to explain the gelding’s improved form, Gary declared that an examination after his October run had revealed Cephalus to be suffering from stomach ulcers. Once they had been cured his work had improved and so he had been expecting an improved run. The explanation was noted. Trainers have to report wind operations and changes in headgear but there is no stipulation that they have to report stomach ulcer treatment. Sometimes you have to make your own luck. After all, Retriever Damson has noted an improvement in my dog-walking performance since the Christmas excesses have ended.

Talking of luck, the 12 horses I urged readers in November to follow this winter are doing their bit. Dysart Enos, Hansard, Iberico Lord, Tellherthename, Victtorino, White Rhino, Kel Du Large and Il Est Francais have won already and three others have run second. It is the last-named however who appears to be something really special. After Il Est Francais, trained in France by Noel George (son of UK-based trainer Tom) and Amanda Zetterholm, had led the way to win the Kauto Star novice chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, jumping with the athletic elan of Kauto himself, Brough Scott turned to me in the winner’s enclosure and exclaimed: ‘That’s a Gold Cup horse.’ I am sure he is right but it seems that Richard Kelvin-Hughes and his French co-owner want to win the French version before they take on the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Noel George told us at Kempton: ‘He takes my breath away every morning on the gallops. You have your stomach in your throat. He doesn’t have to go in front: he has just got that incredible cruising speed. I never work him in front as he does too much work. He always sits in behind and quickens past them…’ And in case you think he and I are prejudiced listen to the comments of Harry Cobden who rode Paul Nicholls’s talented chaser Hermes Allen behind him in the race: ‘For a five-year-old to go and do what he did was an unbelievable performance. I don’t think I’ve ever followed a horse in a three-mile novice chase that jumped and travelled like he did. I couldn’t believe how fast he was going.’ Take any chance you get to watch him.