MOORE lightens up
The great but famously dour jockey has mellowed a bit in recent years
JOANNA LUMLEY was guest of honour at The Curragh last month, with flat headquarters hosting a race named after the modelturned-actress to commemorate her 70th birthday although the Absolutely Fabulous star was not the only personality feted at the Kildare venue over the two-day Tattersalls Irish Guineas Festival.
Lester Piggott, 80, and considered by many to be the greatest flat jockey that ever lived, had a race named after him, too, while an exhibition celebrating his many achievements was on view over the two days. Piggott’s had a special relationship with Ireland thanks to a bountiful association with Ballydoyle maestro, Vincent O’Brien.
And Ballydoyle continues to set the standards at home and abroad, nowadays with the maestro’s namesake Aidan in charge of operations. While unusually failing to bag even one of the early season classics, the Coolmore training centre remains the market leader and got on the board with Minding’s scintillating victory in the Epsom Oaks. This week, O’Brien careered through the half-century barrier of winners at Royal Ascot.
Ryan Moore, winner of yesterday’s Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Ascot aboard the Henry Candy-trained Twilight Son, is the man charged with plotting the course on the track for Ballydoyle’s multi-million Euro animals, and he displayed his composure turning into the straight in the Oaks, when Minding, the odds-on favourite was boxed in and interfered with. It was the same on board Order Of St George in the Gold Cup on Thursday, at the meeting Moore recorded a post-war record of nine winners last year.
It is the nature of racing that things go wrong and jockeys make mistakes. Moore makes fewer than most and that’s what owners, trainers and punters are looking for. So in the Englishman, Coolmore have an appropriate successor to Piggott, as well as Michael Kinane, Kieren Fallon, Johnny Murtagh and O’Brien’s son Joseph.
Plumping for Moore made sense, particularly as they had been employing him on a less formal basis for a few years before that. Now, the 32-year-old three-time champion jockey is the latest to carry the mantle of best in the world and if he carries on in his current vein for another decade, will rate along with the all-time greats.
Piggott rode winners in 34 countries, a truly staggering feat. It is a measure of Moore’s magnificence that he has plundered major prizes in Europe, Asia, America and Australia. The way styles of racing differ around the world cannot be overestimated and we have seen the likes of Frankie Dettori struggle in Australia before.
Yet Moore has won the Derby, the Melbourne Cup, the Hong Kong Cup, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the EP Taylor Stakes, the Japan Cup, the Dubai Sheema Classic and the Breeders’ Cup Turf among many, many more prestigious prizes around the globe.
If there was never any doubt about his skills in the saddle, the only niggling worry might have centred on his obvious dislike for dealing with the media, and particularly for post-race debriefs. Presenting a positive image and giving just the right amount of information is important to Coolmore, whose business extends far beyond what happens on the track.
Moore is the grandson of a second-hand car salesman who also trained horses. Charlie Moore was a gregarious character, full of jokes and funny stories. His son Gary is a jockey-turned-trainer and is very accommodating with the press.
Ryan’s brother Jamie is a Champion Chase winning pilot who is also one of the most popular individuals in the game across the water, a larger-than-life character. In public at least, Moore could not be more cheese to those other family members’ chalk, although one senses a bit of a thaw in recent years, with post-race enquiries not so monosyllabic. His narkiness hasn’t always been confined to the press and in 2008, he was fined €1000 for alleged aggressive behaviour towards two security personnel when attempting to gain entry to the Curragh on Irish Derby day. Having won the Pretty Polly Stakes the day before, it was undoubtedly irritating not to be recognised. But it served only to emphasise the surly image, although he did apologise for the altercation.
The thing with Moore though is that like most of the happy people, it is patently obvious he doesn’t care what those outside his circle think of him.
That’s fair enough but it is a pity too because in the rare interviews he has subjected himself to, he comes across as a very likeable individual, with a sometimes wicked sense of humour. Maybe not Mr Rent-a-wisecrack like Jamie, but more caustic. Prompting smiles rather than belly laughs. This despite coming across initially to the Guardian’s Donald McRae once as ‘the most impressively taciturn man I ever interviewed’.
Joseph O’Brien now has his own training
operation in Owning, Kilkenny, having finally given in to a frame that was never designed for flat racing. He has always been impressed by Moore.
‘I get on very well with Ryan,’ says O’Brien Jnr. ‘During the summer I’d talk to him every week. He’s the best rider in the world. He’s a very good fella, very solid. You wouldn’t meet a nicer person. He’s an unbelievable rider and very strong mentally. His feedback after a race is very good too. I suppose what really marks him out is that he doesn’t make many mistakes. He’s not where he is by mistake.’
Like most high achievers, he is obsessive. In racing, Piggott, Tony McCoy, Richard Dunwoody come readily to mind. Richard Hannon Snr once joked darkly that they had to put Moore on suicide watch if he ever went three days without a winner. When on duty in the Far East, he can be away from his wife and son for up to six weeks. As for the reputation as Mr Grumpy? ‘I do the miserable thing most at the track,’ he told McRae. ‘I just want to ride my horses, win a few races and go home. That’s all I’m interested in. But I get asked stupid questions and it annoys me.’
Piggott was hardly the most loquacious and it worked alright for him for 40 years. Meanwhile, the legend says that Moore is the best jockey in the world because the horses ‘look happy to have him on their back’.
After that, who cares?