Io Sono Leggenda - I Am Legend - proclaims the front page of Italy's racing paper, Equos Trotto & Turf.
They're not kidding.
In the Alpine cradle at Merano racecourse - the border with Austria is just a few miles away to the north, with Verona a three-hour train ride to the south - it’s the Italian equivalent of Cheltenham Gold Cup day. The Gran Premio is a unique race - 5,000 metres round a figure-of-eight course and with a couple of obstacles that dwarf anything on show at Aintree.
It was conceived in 1935 - the racecourse in the Trentino-Alto Adige region opened the same year - but not to suit every horse. Like every jumps race that crowns a champion, it demands athletic prowess and courage.
Aégior had plentiful reserves of both and became the first horse to win three times, scoring in in 1955, 1959 and 1961, a feat matched by Or Jack, who completed a Gran Premio hat-trick between 1994 and 1996. The horse bidding to affirm his legendary status by claiming the outright record of four consecutive triumphs is L’Estran.
The nine-year-old is trained locally by rising star Josef Vana jnr - father Josef snr won the Velká pardubická eight times as a jockey and 11 as a trainer - and runs in the colours of Josef Aichner.
The construction magnate’s silks - yellow, black stripe and sleeves - are ubiquitous at Merano - think Marwan Koukash and Chester - and they’ve been carried to victory in Italy’s premier National Hunt test for the past three years. Among those seeking to deny L’Estran is place in the history books is First Of All, whose jockey Felix de Giles left Britain to carve out a successful career in France.
De Giles, making just his second visit to Merano, lands the Group 1 Gran Criterium D’Autunno aboard New Friend before competing in the Gran Premio for the first time.
“The fences are ginormous - almost unjumpable,” he says. “Half the trick is to have a horse who knows the track, and First Of All has won round here.”
Victory would make de Giles the fourth jockey from Britain to lift the prize.
James Reveley, another expat thriving in French jump racing, has three wins - Rigoureux in 2010, Chercheur D’Or in 2011 and Amos Terry in 2018 - to his name, while Jim Crowley, who these days takes the leg up on Flat champions Baaeed and Battaash, rode Masini to triumph in 2004.
But the allegiance of the 13,000 crowd is unmistakable and as L’Estran’s name is called out in the pre-race parade - staged to the soundtrack of Eye Of The Tiger - raucous cheers echo round the track.
In the race itself, the incumbent doesn’t let them down.
As the field set out for the final lap, L’Estran and rider Josef Bartos look strong in the lead and hold off the challenge of de Giles and First Of All to become the first four-time victor in 83 runnings of the Gran Premio.
This is a race like no other, and the same can be said of the winning horse. Amid the teeth of an Alpine shower, the fans salute their hero as the three Josefs take centre stage and soprano Katia Ricciarelli belts out We Are The Champions.
Not sure about the ‘we’, Katia, but L’Estran certainly is.
