Ryan Moore

In addition to the rare feat of having won every British, Irish and French Classic, he has scooped coveted races all over the globe, including the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Japan Cup, Tenno Sho, Hong Kong Cup, Melbourne Cup and numerous Breeders’ Cup contests. Given his passion for international racing, winning the Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup will remain ambitions. 

His 99 winners at Royal Ascot (only Lester Piggott, with 116, has achieved more) have included a memorable triumph aboard Estimate in the 2013 Gold Cup for Queen Elizabeth II. Images of Her Majesty enjoying a pulsating victory were beamed all over the globe. 

Estimate was trained by Sir Michael Stoute, with whom Moore enjoyed a long and fruitful association before the ten-time champion trainer retired at the end of 2024. The doyen of the Newmarket training ranks also provided him with his first Group 1 winner, Notnowcato, short-head winner of the 2006 Juddmonte International at York. 

A year has subsequently never passed without Moore adding to his tally, with his latest success at the highest level, his 237^th, being aboard True Love, trained by Aidan O’Brien, in the Qatar Prix de la Foret at Longchamp this month. That was his 16^th Group 1 success of the year.

The 43-year-old’s 18 British Classic winners include four Derby winners – Workforce (who won in a record time in 2010), Ruler Of The World (2013), Auguste Rodin (2023) and City Of Troy (2024) – while the extensive list of top-class horses he has ridden also includes exalted names such as Conduit, Found, Gleneagles, Kyprios, Magical, Maurice, Minding, So You Think, St Mark’s Basilica and Snow Fairy. This year, his star performers have included two more exceptional O’Brien-trained talents in Diamond Necklace and Scandinavia. 

Moore has been No 1 rider at Ballydoyle since 2015 and, as such, is the beneficiary of a conveyor belt of regally-bred Coolmore thoroughbreds. It gives him an advantage, but it’s a role that demands sustained excellence and is forever under intense scrutiny. 

His fitness, focus, analytical approach, tactical acumen and intuition have helped set him apart in the saddle, while he has always had the happy knack of being in the right place at the right time in a sport where endless variables require multiple split-second decisions on any given day. 

The dad of four famously shuns the limelight and his private life remains just that. He lives for the horses; it is only would-be interviewers who can occasionally come in for bumpy rides. 

He much prefers to let his actions do the talking, and there are few finer sights than watching him find a rhythm before pouncing as the finish line looms, such as when guiding the Martin Pipe-trained Miss Fara to a last-gasp victory in the 2002 Cesarewitch at Newmarket.  

That was a first big-race triumph for the then apprentice, who was claiming 5lb, with the floodgates opening soon afterwards. Commentator Simon Holt described him as “one of the season’s riding finds” in his post-race assessment. 

As grandson of trainer Charlie, the son of dual-purpose trainer Gary and sibling of Jamie, Joshua and Hayley, all Jump jockeys, Moore was always a short price to become a jockey, although not before he had reached “school of excellence” standard with Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club as a full-back and winger. 

But when he stopped growing, dreams of grandeur in that field evaporated. Football’s loss has been racing’s gain. 

His first ride, aged 16 when weighing 8st 10lb, was on Mersey Beat, trained by his dad, in a handicap hurdle for amateur riders at Towcester on May 15, 2000. The combination won by five lengths at 5/2.  

Moore had always enjoyed schooling horses at home, saying it was more interesting than galloping the Flat horses, but his size meant the door to ride on the level was open and he burst through it. 

His formative years came at the yard of Richard Hannon Sr and he was crowned Champion Apprentice in 2003, when he rode 52 winners. Within three years he was celebrating his first Champion Jocke triumph, courtesy of 182 victories from 1174 rides. Jamie Spencer finished runner-up, with 155. 

Typically, he played it down. “It wasn’t a really big deal,” Moore told Owner Breeder magazine a few years later. “Frankie [Dettori] and Hughsie [Richard Hughes] weren’t trying and Kieren [Fallon] was away in Ireland, so I didn’t beat the best.” 

His defence was wrecked by three months on the sidelines with a broken arm after a fall at Lingfield in March, but he regained his title with plenty to spare in 2008 (192 winners) and again took the spoils by a comfortable margin in 2009 (178 winners). 

He went close to a fourth title in 2013, but a personal best 194 winners was not enough to deny Richard Hughes (208), and he gave it a good go the following year, too, when partnering 162. 

Moore’s title-chasing days ended when he became O’Brien’s main man the following year. Naturally, he started riding more sparingly, with quantity being replaced by more quality. 

The relationship had been bubbling for many years, and Moore wasted no time cementing the position, winning the 2000 Guineas on Gleneagles, the 4/1 favourite, before 24 hours later landing the 1000 Guineas on another Coolmore representative, Legatissimo, who was trained by David Wachman. 

In 2016 and 2017 he scaled dizzy heights, riding 22 Group 1/Grade 1 winners each year. His exploits in the latter year helped O’Brien gain a world record 28 top-level winners. 

Moore was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in King Charles III’s 2026 Birthday Honours for services to Horseracing and to British Sport. 

There are plenty more unwritten chapters in his story. His hunger seems unquenched, perhaps with riding against his 17-year-old son, Toby, himself a promising apprentice, an additional spur. 

He becomes the 14th person to be inducted into the Hall Of Fame after Piggott, Vincent O’Brien, Pat Eddery, Queen Elizabeth II, Frankie Dettori, Willie Carson, Sir Henry Cecil, Stoute, Prince Khalid Abdullah, Steve Cauthen, O’Brien and Jack Berry. There have also been 14 horses.