Gary Moore’s Christmas got even better on Wednesday afternoon as Nassalam produced a mighty performance to land the Coral Welsh Grand National in testing conditions at Chepstow.
The West Sussex-based trainer enjoyed Grade 2 glory at Kempton when Editeur Du Gite battled on bravely to claim the Desert Orchid Chase, while Salver helped provide conditional jockey Caoilin Quinn with a memorable double after the pair scored in the Grade 2 Coral Finale Juvenile Hurdle earlier on the card.
As the field set out for the second circuit only the front-running Amateur and Complete Unknown were recognisable as the rest of the rider's silks were covered in mud. John Flint's Amateur soon dropped away out of contention, and it quickly concerned just a handful of contenders as the gruelling conditions began to take their toll.
The 9/2 joint-favourite travelled strongly throughout, and Quinn soon found himself at the head of affairs jumping the fifth from home. In all truth, from that moment on the six-year-old always looked in command and he continued to pour it on up the Chepstow home straight.
2021 Welsh National scorer Iwilldoit did his best to chase the winner down under top-weight, but he was eventually passed by Iron Bridge for the runner-up spot, although one thing is for certain, neither were going to finish in the same postcode as the winner, who cruised home to score by a widening thirty-four lengths, despite a slight scare over the final flight as he nodded on landing.
Not Sure finished back in fourth, while Paul Nicholls' Complete Unknown was the sole other finisher of the nineteen starters.
Nassalam arrived on the back of landing the Welsh National Trial at the same venue earlier this month, but the prestigious prize would mean Moore's charge would have to step up six furlongs in trip this afternoon. However, any stamina concerns were soon quashed as Nassalam carried a 4lb penalty to a definitive success.
"I winged the first and got in the ideal position just behind the leaders and I couldn't believe how well he travelled," Quinn told Sky Sports Racing.
"We jumped the middle one down the back and we jumped into the lead, and I was kind of thinking I don't want to be there so soon, but he was going so well – I wish I'd had a look now, I won by quite a bit. What a great performance.
"I think the ground is a big factor and I said to Gina (groom) when it was squishing on the ground, he loves this. He just seems to travel so much better on it, he properly loves the mud.
"I'm delighted, over the moon, from winning the Grade Two the last race to this, I can't believe it and I'm very emotional. It is all thanks to my boss and Mr and Mrs Stone for trusting me. I've ridden plenty of big winners for them and for them to keep me on, I'm very grateful."
Speaking with ITV Racing, winning trainer Gary Moore said: "It's unbelievable,"
"It's always been in the back of my mind would he stay, and he stayed very well. He was given a great ride.
"He's committed him a long way out and the horse has kept going for him. He's got a lot of faith in the horse."
Reflecting on a memorable afternoon, the handler added: "You don't get many days like this, believe me. It probably evens itself out just about, you have plenty of bad days."
Nassalam was introduced at 25/1 by Paddy Power for the Grand National in April.
