Ryan Moore, the first jockey to Aidan O’Brien’s powerful Ballydoyle stable and the leading rider in Britain this season, remained in Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge on Friday evening amid growing speculation that an injury suffered when he was unseated in the stalls on Thursday evening may keep him on the sidelines for weeks rather than days.
Moore was unseated from Newton’s Law before the five-furlong handicap which closed the card on the first day of Newmarket’s July Festival meeting. He complained of pain in his neck after the incident but was able to walk to a waiting ambulance and, though he was then taken to hospital for assessment, this was believed to be a routine precaution.
Tony Hind, Moore’s agent, said on Friday morning that the rider would miss the remaining two days of the July Festival, including the ride on O’Brien’s Due Diligence in Saturday’s Group One July Cup, the highlight of the meeting. It was also thought unlikely that the rider would be back in action before the end of next week. “He had a scan yesterday and they didn’t find anything but they kept him in overnight and he will be having another precautionary scan just to make sure there’s nothing there,” Hind said. “He’s fine in himself. He’s a very tough boy.”
Most bookmakers suspended betting on the jockeys’ championship to await news on the condition of Moore, who was two winners ahead of Silvestre de Sousa in the title race and odds-on to win before his injury on Thursday. On the Betfair betting exchange, however, where the market was not suspended, Moore’s price for a fourth title drifted to 6-1 amid growing uncertainty about when he might return to the track.
Moore has been in outstanding form in the current campaign and set a modern-day record for winners at a single Royal Ascot last month when he took nine of the 30 winners over the five days of the meeting. Glorious Goodwood in late July, the Ebor meeting at York and Ireland’s Champions Weekend in early September are all on the horizon and an extended absence for Moore would be keenly felt not just by O’Brien, his main employer this season, but by Flat racing as a whole as the season enters its defining months.
Moore took over as Ballydoyle’s main rider when a struggle to ride consistently at nine stone forced Joseph O’Brien, the trainer’s son, to relinquish the role earlier this year. He rode Gleneagles to victory for the stable in both the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket in May and the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. “I just think he really goes through a race very thoroughly and looks at every possible angle,” Michael Tabor, the joint-owner of Gleneagles, said of Moore after his Classic success. “He’s a very dedicated person.”
Amazing Maria, who joined David O’Meara’s stable after losing her form when trained by Ed Dunlop last season, continued her rapid progress since her move to Yorkshire when she took the Group One Falmouth Stakes, the feature race on the second day of the July Festival.
It seemed possible that Amazing Maria’s victory in a Group Two at Royal Ascot last month was a fluke, as she came through to win at 25-1 after the leaders were racing from a long way out. She duly followed up in much better company, however, winning a sprint to the line under a well-judged ride by James Doyle.
“They hacked and dashed the last couple,” Doyle said. “David said to me, ‘Do what you like’ because it could be a bit tactical. I was able to settle her in early and I was surprised how well she relaxed because we went no pace at all. It was a sprint and we were in the right position to move when we wanted to. A few people thought it might have been a fluke at Ascot but I didn’t feel it was. On the day she hit the line a decisive winner. I felt she’d run well, especially as a lot of the French fillies ahead of me in the market might not handle the ground.”
This was the third Group One win of O’Meara’s career and he could yet add a fourth in Saturday’s July Cup, although G Force, who gave the trainer his first winner at the highest level in last year’s Sprint Cup at Haydock, is not certain to line up on the prevailing fast ground.
“I was told she was a really good filly; she was a Group winner at two for Ed Dunlop,” O’Meara said. “I just hoped that we could let her be what she could be.”
Earlier on the card Illuminate also followed up a victory at Royal Ascot when she scraped home in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes, formerly known as the Cherry Hinton.
Illuminate, who took the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot, was the joint-favourite at 7-4 alongside Easton Angel, who finished second to Acapulco in the Queen Mary Stakes at the same meeting.
While Easton Angel had to wait for running room in the closing stages, Richard Hughes was able to strike for home on Richard Hannon’s filly and grabbed enough of a lead to hold on by a nose from Besharah, with Blue Bayou a short-head away in third.
Illuminate was already near the top of the betting for next year’s 1,000 Guineas and remains unchanged at around 16-1 with most bookmakers.
