THERE was Moore good news on Saturday for those punters who regularly follow a certain veteran trainer from west Sussex, writes Dave Wright.

George Moore completed a double at Ascot’s first Jumps meeting of the 2017-18 season with son Jamie riding both winners.

“It was a good day, winning on two nice horses for dad,” tweeted the jockey.

Their first success of the day came with 5/1 shot Dell Oro in the GL Events UK Novices’ Hurdle, beating the 6/5 favourite American Gigolo by one-and-a-half lengths.

Moore snr commented: “That was the perfect start. He is a horse I’ve always liked a lot and I think he has got talent.”

The trainer spoke even more highly of Benatar (9/2) following his success in the Ascot Underwriting Chase, saying: “He is probably one of the nicest horses I’ve had for a long time. I’ve always said that he is a Hennessy (Gold Cup) horse and hopefully that’s where he might end up one day.”

In between that win double, Jamie proved that a jockey’s life can be full of ups and downs when he was thrown out of the saddle as the John Flint-trained With Pleasure stumbled on the final bend in the Gardiner & Theobald Novices’ Handicap Hurdle.

The race was won by 16/1 shot Brown Bear, ridden by Leighton Aspell, who was completing a hat-trick in his first run of the new season.

Trainer Nick Gifford admitted: “I’m a little bit surprised, to be honest, as most of mine have been needing their first run.

“His jumping has won it for him as he pinged the second-last and last.”

Ascot’s feature race of the day, the Sodexo Gold Cup Handicap Chase, went to Go Conquer (7/1) for trainer Jonjo O’Neill and jockey Aidan Coleman.

The eight-year-old produced an impressive display of jumping as he followed up his Fontwell success last month, winning by four-and-a-half lengths.

O’Neill said: “He loves jumping and he loves life. He is a grand horse. He was going smashing in the Topham but who can tell if you have a Grand National horse. We might come back here (Ascot) in December.”

Another near-faultless performance came from the Phil Middleton-trained Exitas (11/2) in the Byrne Group Handicap Chase, to give apprentice jockey James Bowen the biggest winner of his career so far.

Elgin (6/1 joint-favourite) battled well to win the Class One William Hill Handicap Hurdle despite Tom Cannon’s mount drifting marginally right on the run to the line, finishing one-and-a-quarter lengths ahead of Limited Reserve.

The Alan King-trained Elgin is owned by the Elite Racing Club, whose new members include the wife of Ascot’s chief executive Guy Henderson.

She and other members will be hoping to see their famous black and white colours back on show at Ascot’s next meeting on November 24-25.