It was a golden generation of two-mile chasers and in season 2004-2005 Moscow Flyer laid down a significant marker for those who followed him.
"In the 'sixties, I was one of the best players around. You have your moment of glory and then it fades. Mind you, they'll never say that about Muhammad Ali!"
BBC golfing commentator Peter Alliss displayed his appreciation of the universal truth that all but the legendary sporting heroes eventually fade from the public consciousness.
It is rare for sporting fame to endure much beyond its natural sport will with Muhammad Ali, or has, to close followers of Alliss' own sport, with as Harry Vardon. Bobby Jones and Arnold Palmer. Easter Hero, Golden Mille Arkle, Red Rum and Desert Orchid are among steeplechasers in a similar category Theirs is the nearest to immortality that a racehorse can achieve.
Brilliant performers, however, even of the recent past, are sometimes forgotten and only time will tell whether Moscow Flyer and his three superb contemporaries among the chasers of 2004/5, Azertyuiop, Kicking King and Well Chief, will achieve legendary status In terms of ability, they deserve to be remembered, as does a season which is up in the era of Chasers & Hurdlers in featuring four horses rated above 180. The head of the quartet, Moscow Flyer, is Timeform's champion jumper and highest chaser for the second year running. He is a phenomenon among steeplechasers, winner of nineteen of his twenty completed starts over fences. But for the fact two-milers do not always get the recognition they deserve, Moscow Flyer would be assured of a place among the all-time greats.
On form, only Desert Orchid has stronger claims to that overused mantle "the greatest steeplechaser since Arkle". For those jumping devotees who tend to assume that the glories of the past supersede those of the present, the Timeform view of Moscow Flyer's exalted status may come as a surprise.
It will certainly surprise general sports enthusiasts for whom Cheltenham Gold Cup winners and Grand National winners are the be-all and end-all of steeplechasing. Desert Orchid's sparkling career, which included record four wins in the King George VI Chase, featured numerous performances superior, on form, to his hard-fought victory in the 1989 Cheltenham Gold Cup, yet his duel in the mud with Yahoo was voted the greatest race of all time in a Racing Post poll in the latest season (Red Rum's Grand National victory over Crisp came second, Grundy's battle with Bustino in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes third).
The widespread lament for Best Mate's enforced absence from the latest Gold Cup was further clear evidence of the race's hold on the public imagination. Had a similar fate befallen Moscow Flyer before the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the news would almost certainly have been confined to the racing pages.
It would be trite to reiterate the reasons usually given by those who say it is impossible to compare sporting figures from different eras. One of the most often used is the difficulty of assessing the quality of the opposition faced by respective protagonists from different generations.
There should never be any such reservations about the quality of opposition faced by Moscow Flyer. Like Moscow Flyer himself, Azertyuiop and Well Chief are among the top dozen chasers seen over any distance since the Chasers & Hurdlers series began thirty years ago.
Using Timeform ratings from the Timeform Black Book series between 1962/63 and 1974/75. and ratings compiled on the Timeform scale by Randall and Morris for A Century Of Champions it is possible to arrive at an authoritative list of the top chasers since the beginning of the twentieth century, Moscow Flyer, Azertyuiop and Well Chief all make the top twenty (as do Kicking King and, at his peak, Best Mate).
The clash of Moscow Flyer, Azertyuiop and Well Chief in the latest Queen Mother Champion Chase -the race of the Festival - would have been even more of a marketing man's dream had it not already taken place at Sandown back in December.
Moscow Flyer and Azertyuiop, each an outstanding winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase, had met twice the previous season, Moscow Flyer beating Azertyuiop convincingly in the Tingle Creek but parting company with his rider at Cheltennham and leaving Azertyuiop to come home a nine-length winner of the Queen <other Champion Chase, giving one of the best performances in the race in recent times.
The question of which was the better looked likely to be settked in the latest William Hill-Tingle Creek, the mid-season championship for the two-milers.
Azertyuiop was said by his trainer to have been '12 kilos heavy’ when beaten in the race by Moscow Flyer twelve months earlier, but there could be no excuses on score of fitness this time. Azertyuiop had warmed up for Sandown with a tip-top performance - winning by five lengths under top weight in the Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter (a limited handicap in which he had slipped and unseated his rider at the first the year before).
Moscow Flyer arrived at Sandown, as he had twelve months earlier, with a straightforward victory under his belt at odds-on in the Ballymore Properties Fortria Chase at Navan. He won by twenty-five lengths after the last-fence departure of closest rival Rathgar Beau.
The betting public sided with the younger Azertyuiop at Sandown, the market going 6/5-on Azertyuiop. 2/1 Moscow Flyer, with the previous year’s Arkle winner Well Chief at 6/1.
Azertyuiop's stable-companion Cenkos, winner of the race in 2002 (when a hampered Moscow Flyer unseated his rider) at 25/1 and 80/1 bar in a field of seven.
The race, which carried prize money down to six, was reopened after only the four named were originally entered. In concession to Channel 4's schedule, Sandown dropped the parade stipulated in the conditions, a spectacle popular with racegoers involving the runners being led past the stands before being allowed to canter down.
And so to a race that will live long in the memory of the crowd, at 16.300 one of the biggest in Sandown's history and said to be larger than for any all jumping card at the course.
What was billed as a 'head-to-head in the Tingle Creek turned into a three-way battle, Well Chief managing to bridge the considerable gap from leading novice to championship contender with a much-improved performance which saw him right in contention turning for home.
Azertyuiop's jockey had made first move in the Champion Chase, but he decided to stalk Moscow Flyer in the Tingle Creek, the latter taking over from the front running Cenkos four out.
As in the previous year, Moscow Flyer was never going to be beaten once he established himself in front, especially after being much more fluent than Azertyuiop at the third last. Moscow Flyer produced excellent jumps at the last two fences for good measure and went on to win by a length and a half and a short head, giving the impression he could have found more had been required.
Azertyuiop briefly lost second to Well Chief at the last before rallying on the flat, the first three twenty-five lengths clear of fourth-placed Cenkos in a race that wasn't run at a particularly searching gallop.
There was some criticism of Azertyuiop's rider for not harrying Moscow Flyer earlier, but there was no doubt that the best horse on the day had won. Moscow Flyer was simply superb, the first three all putting in performances of outstanding merit in an epic encounter that proved to be the race of the season.
A challenge for the King George VI Chase at Kempton was thought to be on the cards for Moscow Flyer, but prospects receded in the aftermath of the Tingle Creek.
Though said to have returned completely unscathed from Sandown (‘as if he never had a race"), a second visit to Britain for a big event in the space of three weeks was considered, on reflection, possibly too much.
It was also announced that, with the Champion Chase top of the agenda, it would be best to keep Moscow Flyer at two miles until after the Cheltenham Festival. Plans to run him at Christmas instead for a third successive win in the Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase at Leopardstown were scotched when he was a late withdrawal, a small amount of mucus found in his lungs.
Moscow Flyer's only outing between the Tingle Creek and the Cheltenham Festival came in the Byrne Group plc Tied Cottage Chase at Punchestown at the end of January where he completed a simple task in workmanlike fashion, starting at 11/2-on and not needing to run within two stone of his best form against four opponents.
Well Chief paid a tremendous compliment to the Tingle Creek form in the Victor Chandler Chase at Cheltenham the same weekend, conceding weight all round and putting up a performance which ranked as one of the best in a handicap in recent times.
He won by a length and three quarters from the favourite Thisthatandtother, who was in receipt of 20lbs, a performance even better than Azertyuiop's in the Haldon Gold Cup. Azertyuiop's performance in the previous season's Victor Chandler (at Ascot) had earned him his Timeform rating of 182.
In going down by a neck that day, conceding 19 lb to the winner Isio (out of action in the latest season with a recurrence of a joint injury), Azertyuiop put up -by our reckoning-the equal best performance (with Carvill's Hill's in the 1991 Welsh National) seen in a handicap since Desert Orchid's breathtaking eight length victory under 12-3 in the 1990 Racing Post Chase (worth a rating of 187).
Azertyuiop's preparation for the latest Queen Mother Champion Chase took in two races after the Tingle Creek, the first of them a surprise appearance in the King George VI Chase in which the form of his creditable third to Kicking King in vintage edition would have been good enough to have won five of the seven previous renewals.
Azertyuiop was then put back to two miles in the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury in February. Well Chief, in receipt of 4 lb, took him on but Azertyuiop recorded another outstanding performance beatinh him by two and a half lengths, the pair a long way clear of the four other runners.
There was a field of eight for the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Moscow Flyer (6/4). Azertyuiop (2/1) and Well Chief (7/2) standing out.
The progressive Oneway, unbeaten in five handicaps in the current season, and Central House, winner of the Grade 1 Dial-A-Bet Chase at Christmas in the absence of Moscow Flyer and beaten only once in his last four outings, started at 16/1 and 25/1 respe tively, with Venn Ottery (fifth in the race the year before) at 50/1 and Azertyuiop's stable-companions Kadarann and Cenkos (in the frame in the last three editions) at 100/1.
One of jumping's most endearing qualities is that its stars tend to be around. for longer than their counterparts on the Flat. Although the top jumpers return season after season, only Royal Relief had regained the two-mile championship at Cheltenham since it was first run in 1959.
He won the Champion Chase as an eight-year-old and, after coming second at nine, won at the age of ten (Royal Relief made eight appearances in the race in all, finishing second on two other occasions and third once).
Ten is towards the top of the age range for a Champion Chase winner, but Skymas was eleven when he won in 1976 and Moscow Flyer emulated him when producing another magnificent display in the the latest edition. Unfortunately, for the second year running an eagerly-anticipated close duel between Moscow Flyer and Azertyuiop failed to materialise, Azertyuiop's winning chance effectively ended by a bad mistake at the water, the sixth fence. Moscow Flyer travelled strongly just behind the leaders Central House and Kadarann from the start, jumping well except for getting in close four from home (the fence at which he departed the previous year).
Leading at the third last, Moscow Flyer was chased all the way from that point by Well Chiel, always looking in command and winning by two lengths, with Azertyuiop, subsequently found to have pulled muscles in his abdomen, thirteen lengths behind Well Chief in third and seven lengths ahead of fourth-placed Oneway.
Moscow Flyer, mobbed by well-wishers and euphoric Irish racegoers waving the country's tricolor, received a standing ovation on his return to the unsaddling enclosurewhere his jockey Barry Geraghty executed a Frankie Dettori-style flying dismount.
The celebrations must have gone on well into the night, none presumably more enthusiastic than those at Seven Barrows where Moscow Flyer's trainer was a house guest of Nicky Henderson, whose stable had two winners on the same card.
Moscow Flyer extended his unbeaten record in races completed over fences to nineteen with a second successive victory in Aintree's two-and-a-half-mile Melling Chase, carrying the name of new Grand National sponsors John Smith's for the first time.
Moscow Flyer turned the six-runner event into an exhibition, hardly turning a hair in landing the odds by sixteen lengths from Le Roi Miguel.
Moscow Flyer misjudged the second fence in the Melling, getting in a shade too close, but it was the only semblance of a mistake that he made. The days when perceived flaws in Moscow Flyer's jumping technique were a hot topic of conversation seemed to be behind him.
The Melling was his seventh successive victory since the last hiccup at the 20004 Cheltenham Festival.
“It has taken six years but he’s finally got there!” joked Moscow Flyer's trainer after the Melling. “Barry said he is becoming a nice ride and you can settle him. He was always travelling and jumping superbly.”
Mrs Harrington spoke too soon. The Kerrygold Champion Chase at Punchestown, shortly after the end of the British season, was billed as another lap of honour for Moscow Flyer who started at 4/1-on in a field of seven which did not include an overseas challenger.
Moscow Flyer would not settle in the race, despite a sound pace, and, in front four out, looked like being strongly pressed by Rathgar Beau even before making a monumental blunder at the second last, the same fence at which he had unseated Geraghty in the race two years previously, at a time when lapses in his jumping were in danger of becoming a little too common.
Moscow Flyer stayed on his feet in the latest renewal, after handing the advantage to Rathgar Beau, and he rallied gamely from the last to be beaten only a short head. The judge took longer examining the photo-finish print - the result was very close to being a dead-heat - than the race itself had taken. Because of the width of the chase course, Punchestown does not have 'mirror image’ facilities for photo finishes, and it isn't altogether clear from the official print that Moscow Flyer was beaten.
One below-form effort (Moscow Flyer was way below his best at Punchestown) at the end of a full campaign should not be allowed to detract from a season of magnificent achievement.
Moscow Flyer will hopefully be back as good as ever in the next season. Azertyuiop is sadly facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines through injury, but Moscow Flyer will still face stiff opposition from Well Chief. who has age on his side. Five years Well Chief's senior, Moscow Flyer will have to be at his peak, if a top-form Well Chief is in the line-up, to record a third victory in the Tingle Creek and in and in the Champion Chase. He will be twelve when the Chelte ham Festival comes around again but Skymas retained the two-mile championship at that age and Moscow Flyer will still be the one to beat if he keeps his form and steers clear of illness and injury.
It must be in his favour that he didn’t appear on a racecourse until he was five, incidentally failing to win on any of his four outings in bumpers in his first season.
The latest season was only Moscow Flyer’s fourth in steeplechases and there were precious few signs of him reaching his limit. In all, he has won 26 races from 41 starts over jumps (including the four in bumpers) covering seven seasons.
Moscow Flyer’s two seasons over hurdles included victories in the December Festival Hurdle and the Shell Champion Hurdle, in both of which Istabraq fell.
Moscow Flyer would have beaten him anyway in the first-named and, though Istabraq had taken his measure on the second occasion, Moscow Flyer still showed form in the Shell Champion Hurdle better than any shown by his contemporaries among the two-mile hurdlers in Britain.
Moscow Flyer would have been good enough to win the Champion Hurdle in an average year but he had the physique of a chaser and it was likely he would be switched to fences sooner rather than later.
His record in steeplechases stands a nineteen wins from twenty-five starts. He has fallen twice (which he also did once in his hurdling days) and unseated his rider three times, but he is mostly a fast and accurate jumper.
Effective at two miles to two and a half, Moscow Flyer seems unlikely now to get a crack at the King George VI Chase, especially as the next edition has been transferred to Sandown, a stiffer tack than Kempton which is closed temporarily for the development of a new, all-weather track, jumping set to resume in 2006 on the turf course formerly used for Flat racing.
Moscow Flyer acts on good to firm and heavy going and, despite having a marked tendency to idle in front, is game and tremendously reliable.
The pedigree of the strong, lengthy Moscow Flyer has been dealt with tho oughly in earlier Annuals and the only update is that his younger sister Blooming Quick, who fetched €215.000, a record for a store filly, as a three-year-old at the 2002 Derby Sale, belied her name when managing only seventh of twenty-four runnerss in a bumper at Punchestown in May on her only start so far.
The career of Moscow Flyer's sire Moscow Society, who stands in County Limerick, has enjoyed an upturn in recent years and he is now averaging over one hundred and thirty mares a season.
Moscow Flyer's dam Meclick Lady, who is now dead, never ran but is from a well-known jumping family, her own dam the winning hurdler/chaser Que Life being out of Brambling, a half-sister to the 1959 Champion Hurdle runner-up Ivy Green, the Great Yorkshire Chase winner Bramble Tudor and another winning hurdler/chaser Indicate, the dam of Artic Ale and the unraced Bardicate, dam in turn to the useful-or-better staying chasers Green Bramble, Deviner, Polyfemus and Deep Bramble.
Moscow Flyer's breeders now have his Over the River half-sister Meelick Lass at stud. She produced colt foals by Carroll House in 2001 and Lord Americo in 2003. Mrs J. Harrington, Ireland
