Moore hopeful of more to come from promising Sea Ducor Fag An Bealach’s last gasp victory at Naas on Saturday continued a good run of form for Caragh Co.Kildare trainer Arthur Moore. Midland Millie and Crossed My Mind have also got on the scoresheet for Moore in recent times and his weekend success with the well-related Stowaway mare, whose dam is a half-sister to 2009 Irish Grand National winner Niche Market, moved him onto a tally of five winners from just 18 runners so far this season. Perhaps his most exciting prospect is last Friday’s Gowran Park winner Sea Ducor who races in the colours of Klairon Davis. The latter was a star performer for Moore in the 1990s, winning the Arkle Novice Chase in 1995 and the Queen Mother Champion Chase a year later, both times under jockey Frannie Woods. In total the French-bred gelding won 20 races, 13 of them over fences having been unbeaten in six starts as a novice hurdler beforehand. Sea Ducor, owned by Chris Jones, was a winner on the Flat at Navan in September 2019 and finished a promising second to subsequent dual-Grade 2 winner Aspire Tower on his hurdling debut at Punchestown. After last week’s victory on his first outing for almost a year, where he displayed a good attitude and a sound hurdling technique in beating a useful field, Moore reported that a hairline fracture of a cannon-bone had necessitated a spell on the sidelines but that the lay-off had, at least, given the 4-year-old time to mature and strengthen up. “He seems fine after Gowran and hopefully he can continue to progress,” Moore commented at the weekend. “We are thinking of going down the handicap route and, with the rating he is likely to get, he may get into the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury (scheduled for Saturday, February 13th) which could be an option.”
