A full brother to French Horse of the Century Al Capone II, The Fellow was trained in France by François Doumen, ridden by the Polish jockey Adam Kondrat, and owned by the Marquise Soledad de Moratalla.

The Fellow first came to prominence in Britain when he ran in the 1990 King George VI Chase as a young five-year-old, although the previous month he had won the Group One Prix La Haye Jousselin at Auteuil Hippodrome in France.

He finished third in the King George behind Desert Orchid and Toby Tobias, then ran in a French hurdle race before returning to the UK to run in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

However, despite his age he was only beaten a short-head into second place by Garrison Savannah and defeated a number of good horses including Desert Orchid, Cool Ground and Celtic Shot.

In fact, BBC commentator Sir Peter O'Sullevan (possibly biased through being a friend of the horse's owner) thought that The Fellow was going to just get up to win the race.

In a close finish, he just beat Docklands Express and Remittance Man, with Desert Orchid falling when beaten in his last race before retirement.

The next season, he won two further races at Auteuil before running in the Hennessy Gold Cup, where he was a good third under top-weight behind Sibton Abbey and Jodami.

Barton Bank, one of the favourites for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, was injured shortly before the race, which improved The Fellow's chances of winning.

Peter Scudamore said about the ride the horse was given: " ...and beautifully ridden by Adam Kondrat, who understandably was very hurt by the illinformed, illjudged comments about his previous Gold Cup defeats."

The Fellow tired after Becher's Brook on the second circuit where he went down on his nose, he made another mistake at the next (Foinavon), before falling heavily at the Canal Turn (fence 24) when fourth - his form going into the Grand National read; 5-33331.