Espoir moves Mulholland and gives plenty of hope for the future

It presumably takes something out of the ordinary to get Neil Mulholland to make the 500-plus mile round journey from south east of Bath to the fringes of North Yorkshire, and that could well describe what the crowd saw in Espoir De Teillee, his impressive winner of the 2m3½f novice hurdle under Noel Fehily.

"He's a nice horse and we're very happy to get his first run of the season into him," said Mulholland. "Noel said he jumped his hurdles very well and I think he's the sort of horse that we'll see the best of over fences."

Mulholland added that Espoir De Teillee's long-term promise is no bar to giving him a worthy examination this winter.