He is now increasingly gearing his 70-plus string towards the winter game.

Tikram is set to go straight for the Paddy Power, the highlight of the prestigious Open meeting at Cheltenham, having been slower to come to hand this season than his trainer would have liked.

But his final two appearances last season, when winning at Cheltenham and then when returning to the course in April to finish a close second to Seebald, confirmed that the seven-year-old is an improving performer.

“They say they reach their peak when they are seven so we’ll have to see if he can keep improving,” said Moore today. “He does meet a bit of a flat spot in his races but if you leave him to take his time he will always be staying on at the finish, as he did when he won the Mildmay of Flete.

“It was incredible day. They always tell you how special it is to win a race at the Festival but when it happens it’s something else. I had people coming up to me who I’d never spoken to before shaking my hand and I’ve never had so many text messages in my life.

“Hopefully, he will get three miles on an easy track but I wouldn’t really want to try and find out too early in the season because it could bottom him.

“He’s a good ground horse who wouldn’t want it soft but I hope he will go well in the Paddy Power as we know he runs well at Cheltenham. The ground is never too bad there because it’s not over-raced on.

“I did want to run him at Aintree this weekend but he’s not quite ready for it.

“Timmy (Murphy) obviously knows the horse very well and he will be offered the ride. But I imagine we will have to wait until five to 10 on declaration day before we know if we’ve got him.”

In terms of quality, Moore’s string has improved noticeably in recent seasons and the presence of horses like Adopted Hero, Nawamees, Flying Spirit alongside less-exposed horses such as Our Samson and What A Man promise to make things better than ever this winter.

After looking a high-class juvenile hurdler, Adopted Hero ended last season under a cloud when finishing sixth in the Triumph Hurdle before running badly in the Glenlivet Hurdle at Aintree.

But Moore is out to make amends with his charge this season and could start the four-year-old’s jumps campaign at Wincanton next month in the Elite Hurdle after an outing to Musselburgh next week.

“I think he could be a seriously nice horse,” he said.

“He’s got a fair amount of talent. I probably cocked it up with him because he came there cruising in the Triumph but faded and I shouldn’t have run him as he wasn’t quite right.

“Then we got tempted into running him at Aintree when we shouldn’t have.

“I think he doesn’t really want to go much further than two and a quarter miles, even though he got two miles on the Flat.

“I’ve got a feeling that we were riding him wrong last season and we might try and be a bit more positive with him as he was winning his races on the Flat by bossing them.

“He’ll make a serious chaser in time but I want to give him another season over hurdles as I don’t believe in rushing them over fences. I know the top trainers like Paul Nicholls do but he’s probably a bit spoilt for choice with so many nice horses.

“There’s a £40,000 (€58,000) race at Musselburgh next week and then we might look at the Italian St Leger but I’m not such a fan of that. We’ll see how he goes at Musselburgh first but I’d like to go for the Elite.”

One of Moore’s most interesting new arrivals is unraced gelding New Entic, bought privately in France, and regarded as a leading prospect when he goes over hurdles.

“I think he might start off at Huntingdon on the 31st of this month and he knows his job inside out,” said the trainer.

“I went over to France and saw him school over something like 30 hurdles and he was very good.

"He’s only been here six weeks but he’s ready to go and he is going to be very interesting.

“He’s schooled well. He’s vetted clean. He’s got half a pedigree and on looks we had to have him as well.”