Ryan Moore vs Oisin Murphy in a Champion Jockey battle for the ages? That would be one hell of a fight…
BRITISH racing should take some comfort that if he wanted to Ryan Moore could do a reverse ‘Willie Mullins’ and easily be Champion Flat rider in Ireland.
Quite simply, Moore’s statistics across the Irish sea right now are off the charts and come off the back of a four-timer at the Curragh which now mean he’s banged in 11 winners from his last 13 rides at the course.
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As it is, the excellent Colin Keane is almost certainly going to be Ireland’s Champion Flat Jockey for the fifth year in a row.
But it really wouldn’t take much va va voom from Moore at all to take him to the top of the table.
Let’s just get you up to date.
At the time of writing (Monday morning) Keane has banged in 77 winners and accumulated over €2.3million in prize money.
Moore has 54 victories to his name with a whopping €2.8m.
But it’s the winners to rides percentage that is crazy.
Keane operates at 15.9 per cent. Moore at 39.7 per cent.
Mullins became the first Irish trainer to land the British Jumps Championship in 70 years earlier this year.
He followed in the footsteps of Vincent O’Brien who achieved the feat in 1954.
Moore will tell you the Irish Flat title is not a consideration, and that it’s not possible with his schedule.
But if he was interested in making a slice of history he could do it in his sleep.
Don’t get me wrong here, this is about Moore’s skill rather than any slur on Keane. The latter is ultra-talented.
On that score one could of course say the same remarks about the UK, although I can’t help but feel that even if Moore wanted to be champion in Britain he would face a stiff challenge from Oisin Murphy.
Just like Keane, you can’t help wonder whether as Murphy goes up to collect his trophy this term the name Moore could be in the back of his mind.
Moore is currently 25th in the GB Flat Championship table.
But he has £6.5m prize money and a strike rate of 23 per cent. Considering the number of rides he has had (554), Murphy’s wins to runs numbers of 22 per cent is quite exceptional.
And it’s not like he’s won nothing with £4.9m in the bag.
It won’t happen, but if Moore and Murphy ever went head to head from start to finish it would be one hell of a battle.
And so we wait! Yes people, while we are on the topic of jockeys the wait goes on to find out the exact fate of the ‘missing’ five, namely Jim Crowley, Taylor Fisher, Harry Burns, Andrew Elliott and Murphy.
If you are wondering what I’m talking about, these were the riders who missed fixtures which ultimately turned out to be meetings where BHA breath testing was taking place.
It’s all gone quiet, although BHA officials tell me there might be an update in the ‘coming days’.
It’s one of the issues with the BHA, everything just takes so long. It’s like pulling teeth to get anything to happen.
You only have to ask Ed Dunlop, who over the last week got a suspended one-year disqualification over a horse which tested positive for a metabolite of cocaine back in July 2023.
One can only guess what the BHA is up to.
But the delay could be any one of the following:
A) It’s alcohol testing, so if there was any suspicion of testing positive they’d perhaps think it’d be pointless turning up the next day.
B) BHA simply accepted the traffic excuse.
C) They’re focusing on phone evidence to make sure no avoiding of tests/being tipped off
Delays aren’t healthy for anyone. Just get on with it.
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