Jonathan mixing it with best in business
Wexford’s unofficial champion National Hunt jockey
JONATHAN MOORE from Tomgarrow, Adamstown, is the unofficial champion National Hunt jockey for County Wexford as his 38 Irish winners in the curtailed season ended in March was his best seasonal total by far to earn him that distinction as he finished eighth in the table, two ahead of Seán Flanagan. He also had a couple of wins in Britain.
He has been riding since 2010 but had a slow start, and it took him four years and over 30 rides to notch his first winner, on July 20, 2014, on board Couleur De La Loi at Tipperary for trainer Michael Cleary.
But things then began to click, and he has had nearly one hundred Irish winners since, having also had a successful year in Britain where he has well over 30 winners to his name, including some top races.
It is no coincidence that his improvement in the past year has come after linking up with one of the rising training stars in the country, former farrier, Gavin Cromwell from Meath. ‘He has certainly helped revive my career,’ he acknowledged.
He began with a steady flow of winners from February, and both Moore and Cromwell were happy to make the arrangement more formal when Jonathan was appointed as stable jockey early last September. ‘I’m very lucky,’ he said. ‘Gavin is a brilliant trainer and a very decent man.’
Cromwell said on his blog at the time: ‘Since Jonathan got more involved in the yard back in February we’ve had a good run of things…He’s a very capable rider and gets on well with the owners.’
The partnership yielded an impressive 33 of Jonathan’s 38 winners, and some great runs by the rapidly improving Darver Star were the highlight, culminating in third in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham won by Epatante, having led over the last. The horse was a late bloomer, having to overcome problems before hitting the track as a six-year-old.
It is almost unbelievable that just over a year ago it took the horse two attempts to win a modest hurdle at Wexford for horses that had never been placed in a race. He kept improving and won five times before placing behind unbeaten Envoi Allen in the Royal Bond at Fairyhouse towards the end of the year.
A neck defeat to the top-class mare, Honeysuckle, in February’s Irish Champion Hurdle booked his place at the Cheltenham Festival. While disappointed not to win, Jonathan was delighted with the run.
Darver Star is certainly one for Moore to look forward to next season, and Cromwell has already decided that the horse will switch to the big fences. Progress will be watched with real interest and Jonathan hopes the Arkle or the Marsh Chase could be the Cheltenham target next March, all going well.
He is also looking forward to Jeremy’s Flame who he says is made to jump a fence, and Railway Hurricane and a lot of young point-to-pointers that have been bought in.
Aged just 26, Jonathan is entering the prime of his career and he has packed a lot in already.
He is son of Michael and Derville from Tomgarrow, and he has two sisters, Natasha and Victoria. He was educated at the local national school and at Good Counsel College, New Ross.
He has lived most of the last five years at Castleblayney in Monaghan since riding for the late, great eccentric, Oliver Brady.
He met local girl, Charmaine Smyth, up there and they are engaged now after five years together. They have two charming little daughters, Croía, nearly four, and Erin, nearly three.
In the summer of 2015, his career got a boost when he joined Noel Meade. He had his first winner for him in the valuable Cork National on Tulsa Jack, and he doubled up on him in the Midlands National at Kilbeggan the following season.
He had had a couple of big winners in valuable races early in 2016, in the Leopardstown Chase on Colm Murphy’s Empire Of Dirt, which later went on to win at Cheltenham, and on the Rebecca Curtis-trained Irish Cavalier in the Guinness Handicap chase at the Punchestown Festival.
This led to a link-up with the Wales-based trainer when he decided to give it another go across the water. It began very well, and Moore rode 26 winners in Britain in his first season, including beating Cue Card and Menorah on Irish Cavalier in the highly-rated Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby, which he regards as one of his biggest winners.
He was actually back in Wexford the next day to ride in the Opera Festival two-day meeting, quite a contrast.
But he ended the arrangement with Curtis in November, 2017, after the flow of runners and winners had dried up, and he decided to concentrate on riding in Ireland.
He had actually never moved across to Wales and used to fly back and forth as required, mostly because of his family commitments back home. ‘Rebecca and I are still on good terms, but it’s nice to be on home soil full-time,’ he said at the time.
Jonathan is now happy to have found his niche with Gavin Cromwell, not a surname that resonates very highly in Wexford, but this Cromwell comes across as a very decent, down-to-earth man and an excellent trainer.
Gavin and the ‘Wexford champion jockey’ have a lot to look forward to when racing gets going again.