Amateur rider Colin Moore was the son of Newmarket trainer Pat Moore. He rode 15 winners under National Hunt rules and more than 20 in point-to-points. He gained his first win on his father’s novice hurdler Eiger at Worcester on March 26, 1960, his only winner that season. Eiger also gave him his sole success of the following season.
Major Eldred Wilson gave Colin his next winning ride, on Essandem in the Open Hunters’ Chase at the West Norfolk Hunt 1962 May meeting. They won that same race again in 1963. (‘West Norfolk Hunt’ officially became ‘Fakenham’ at the start of the 1963/64 season.)
Having ridden just a single winner in each of his first four seasons, Colin rattled off five during the 1963/64 campaign, beginning with his father’s three-mile chaser Lizawake at Doncaster. The other four came courtesy of Essandem, whose hunter chase victories included the Queen’s Cup at Fakenham on Easter Monday and Fakenham’s Open Hunters’ Chase for the third year running.
On October 16, 1964, Essandem and Colin won the three-runner East Kent Handicap Chase at Wye, just six weeks after the horse had been diagnosed with incurable ringworm and sentenced to death. His owner, Major Wilson, was advised to have him put down but was reluctant to do so. Five days after that Wye victory, Essandem and Colin won a two-horse chase at Huntingdon.
Back at Fakenham on Easter Monday 1965 they won the Norfolk course’s first sponsored race, the Bullards Beer Handicap Chase, the first leg of a bank holiday double for Colin, completed by another of Eldred Wilson’s horses, Salmon River, in the Prince of Wales’s Cup.
Sadly, Essandem’s next race was to be his last. While walking back after dead-heating with Fearless Cavalier in the Stour Handicap Chase at Wye on May 25, 1965, he collapsed and died in front of the stands. It was a sad end for the 12-year-old, who had run 69 times, winning 17, and had also distinguished himself in point-to-points.
At Fakenham’s Whit Monday meeting, Colin won the Open Hunters’ Chase for the fourth consecutive year, this time on Salmon River. It was his last winner under National Hunt rules.
Colin Moore’s winners under National Hunt rules were:
1. Eiger, Worcester on March 26, 1960
2. Eiger, Doncaster, February 3, 1961
3. Essandem, West Norfolk Hunt, May 26, 1962
4. Essandem, West Norfolk Hunt, June 3, 1963
5. Lizawake, Doncaster, February 24, 1964
6. Essandem, Doncaster, Doncaster, March 10, 1964
7. Essandem, Fakenham, March 30, 1964
8. Essandem, Huntingdon, May 2, 1964
9. Essandem, Fakenham, May 18, 1964
10. Essandem, Wye, October 26, 1964
11. Essandem, Huntingdon, October 31, 1964
12. Essandem, Fakenham, April 19, 1965
13. Salmon River, Fakenham, April 19, 1965
14. Essandem, Wye, May 24, 1965 (dead-heat)
15. Salmon River, Fakenham, June 7, 1965