GARY and Josh Moore had three days to remember last weekend. Between Friday and Sunday, they saddled five winners, four at Sandown and one at Huntingdon, and three of these were in graded or listed races. For good measure, they had another winner on Monday!

They went home each of the three days in question with a blacktype winner, and two of these were earning that for the first time. The odd one out was Salver (Motivator), but he hasn’t been reviewed in this column before, so now is the time.

Salver is only five, and was foaled in France and bred by the Italian-based Scuderia Genets. Offered as a yearling, he was unsold at €43,000, and connections must have regretted not parting with him then as two years later he sold at Arqana for €25,000. That was after running at San Siro and beating just one home in a 10-runner race over nine furlongs. He transformed after being gelded and joining Gary Moore.

His first four starts for Moore saw him run up a sequence of four wins, and his Grade 2 win in the Future Champions Finale Juvenile Hurdle was gained by 21 lengths. His winning sequence was broken when he finished a respectable third behind Majborough in the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle. Last season was a frustrating one when he failed to win, but he was denied victory in the Grade 2 Select Hurdle at Sandown by just a head.

This season, Salver has had his attention turned to chasing, and he was no match for Lulamba when both made their debut over fences at Exeter. The winner has now won a Grade 1, while the runner-up is also a winner since. Salver, meanwhile, was a comfortable 12-length winner of the Grade 2 Esher Novices’ Chase, and the last two winners of that race are Handstands and Stay Away Fay.

Smart Saldier

Salver is a half-brother to a very smart winner in Saldier (Soldier Hollow). He won both the Grade 1 Morgiana Hurdle and Grade 1 Champion 4YO Hurdle at Punchestown, before adding the Galway Hurdle. Saldier was the first winner for his dam Salve Evita (Monsun), but has since been joined by Salver and two others in Italy, including jumps winner Salcret (Sakhee’s Secret) who placed in a Grade 2 chase at Merano. Salver appears to be Salve Evita ‘s last foal, and she never had a filly.

Salve Evita was sold as a yearling for 70,000gns, and resold as a two-year-old, still unnamed, in the following year’s July Sale for 100,000gns and sent to Germany. She was unplaced on her only start and purchased, carrying Saldier, by Federico Barberini for €26,000 in 2013. She is a half-sister to four successful runner, two of them blacktype winners.

Sri Putra (Oasis Dream) was a Group 2 winner in England and France and twice placed in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes. His half-brother Duty (Rainbow Quest) won for Sir Michael Stoute before being sold to Brendan Bashford to race for trainer Kevin O’Brien, for whom he won the Grade 3 Aramark Winning Fair Juvenile Hurdle at Fairyhouse.

Their dam Wendylina (In The Wings) sold as an unraced juvenile at the 2001 Tattersalls December Sale for 220,000gns, being a half-sister to the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks winner Caerlina (Caerleon). That mare’s only blacktype winner was King Of Queens (Dalakhani), a Grade 2 hurdle winner for Tom Mullins who placed at Grade 1 level. Caerlina’s daughter Macheera (Machiavellian) bred the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois winner Al Wukair (Dream Ahead).

Two Goffs graduates complete Moore’s blacktype treble

GARY and Josh Moore’s great Sandown meeting included success for an Irish-bred, with Hurricane Pat (Kalanisi) keeping up his improvement to land a listed novices’ hurdle. The five-year-old sports the colours of Noel Fehily’s Racing Syndicate.

Bred by Pat McCarthy, Hurricane Pat was runner-up on both his point-to-point starts, beaten a head first time out and by half a length next time. Surprisingly, given where he came from, he sold for only £40,000 at the Goffs UK Spring Sale last year. He won a bumper first time out at Sandown, and was third in another there after that.

Gary and Josh Moore sent Hurricane Pat to Chepstow for his third and final start in bumpers, and he regained his winning ways. That was back in March. Last month, Hurricane Pat made a triumphant hurdle debut, again at Sandown, and it was back there last weekend that he won his first blacktype contest. No guessing what course will be the first choice for race planning in the future.

A son of the former Boardsmill Stud sire Kalanisi (Doyoun), Hurricane Pat is the third foal and first winner for his dam Fedoria (Authorized) who still has a few youngsters in the pipeline. Most of the family of Fedoria has excelled in Italy, though another branch has been doing well closer to home. There is plenty of jumping in the family though.

Fedoria’s dam Fedian (Flying Spur) gained all but one of her dozen victories over jumps in Italy, and they include three Grade 3 chases, in Merano, Rome and Turin. Her best son, Auronzo (Reckless William), won a Grade 2 hurdle and Grade 3 chase in Italy too. One of Fedian’s daughters made it to Ireland, and she is doing well as a broodmare, her daughter Magical Zoe (Shantou) winning a Grade 3 hurdle at Down Royal and a listed hurdle at Gowran Park.

Latest foal

Magical Zoe is one of five winners out of Fedaia, and this week that mare’s latest foal, a colt by Jeu St Eloi (Saint Des Saints), sold to Tally-Ho Stud for €65,000.

A stable in form must never be ignored, but with winners in the field, Ti’mamzel (No Risk At All) was sent off at 12/1 for the Listed Henrietta Knight Mares’ Open Bumper at Huntingdon. Fourteen went to post, but none could lay a finger on the winner, and this victory is likely an early bonus for owner Paul Hunt, who hopes he will ultimately have a smart chaser!

Ti’mamzel was sourced as a yearling in France for €30,000 from her breeders, Anthony and Timothe Gourama, and resold at the 2024 Goffs Arkle Sale to Ed Bailey for €105,000 from Tony Costello’s Treannahow Stables. It is interesting to note what Bailey said at the time of purchase. “Very happy with that. She’s a gorgeous big filly, has size and scope, and comes from a very good vendor. I’m very pleased to get her to be honest. She’s been bought for a new client to me. We will get her back to England and take it from there. She has a great pedigree for down the line.”

The Huntingdon winner is out of a full-sister to four winners, notably Al Bucq (Goldneyev) and Gorilla. The last-named won a listed chase at Nantes, but his own-brother was more talented. Al Bucq’s five wins include Auteuil’s Grade 2 Prix Georges Courtois Chase and a listed hurdle race, and the gelding earned €770,000 while racing, thanks in part to 28 placed runs that included 11 blacktype races.