Goshen ‘absolutely fine’ following International disappointment

Gary Moore ace was found to have fibrillating heart following Cheltenham defeat.

Gary Moore remains hopeful Goshen can still prove himself a top-class performer after he was found to be suffering from a fibrillating heart following his disappointing effort in Saturday’s International Hurdle at Cheltenham.

The four-year-old was the hot favourite on his first appearance over obstacles since his heartbreaking final-flight mishap in the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March, but trailed home last of the 10 runners, after which the heart issue was discovered.

Speaking on Racing TV’s Luck On Sunday programme, Moore said: “He’s absolutely fine. He ate up last night and has been out for an hour this morning – he seems quite happy.

“My vet is coming in to check him out. I’ve been training a long time and this is the third or fourth time that it’s happened to me.

“I think you just give them a bit of time. You wouldn’t know there was a problem this morning.”

While the heart problem was likely the chief reason for Goshen’s below-par performance, Moore also feels he also hindered by an interrupted preparation, a change of tactics and the fact three of the eight hurdles were omitted.

He added: “It was a mess of a race. The first two hurdles were gone and the horse was over-racing. There was a lot of disappointment yesterday, but we learnt one thing – don’t restrain the horse, let him use his stride and let him get on with it.

“I think he gets claustrophobic and doesn’t want to be right amongst horses – he doesn’t like being crowded. We tried to hold him up and it was the wrong thing to do.

“We’ll take it a day at a time. He didn’t have a great preparation going into Saturday – he’s had niggly problems all the way through. I think he might have needed the race – it was like his first run of the season as far as I’m concerned.

“I’ll see how he is in the next few days and how this heart issue is, but we won’t write him off for the season, definitely not.

“He’s very special and has his own way of doing things.”

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