There was a hint of Classic potential about Sanus Per Aquam here on Thursday, as he overcame some giddy moments in Newmarket’s famous Dip on the way to a narrow success in the Somerville Tattersall Stakes. Next spring seemed an age away an hour later, though, when Ryan Moore returned to the saddle after nearly three months recovering from a neck injury, just as the Flat campaign starts to reach a crescendo.
In the immediate aftermath of Moore’s injury, sustained in an incident in the stalls at Newmarket on 9 July, there were suggestions that the former champion would be out until 2016. Moore had been booked to ride at Newmarket on Friday, however, and was then announced mid-morning on Thursday as the rider of Sir Michael Stoute’s Peterhof, in a handicap later in the day.
Peterhof could finish only third in the Arkle Finance Handicap over 12 furlongs after Moore was forced to look for running room inside the final quarter-mile. He has three chances to record his first success since July at Newmarket on Friday, including Time Test, the likely favourite, in the Group Two Joel Stakes.
“I wasn’t quite sure where that came from,” Moore said before his comeback ride, referring to stories about a longer absence. “With injuries, you’re never quite sure how long it’s going to take, but that was never said to me, that I would be out that long. You never know how things heal and things have healed back fine, and I always sort of thought that I’d be back around this time of year.
“It’s part of sport, I’ve had injuries before and you just focus on fixing yourself as quickly as you can and getting yourself back ready. It’s disappointing at the time, but worse things happen.”
For a sportsman as talented and competitive as Moore, the frustration of spending nearly three months as a spectator will have been considerable. Yet he took the chance to enjoy a summer holiday with his young family for the first time, and does at least return to action at the point in the Flat racing calendar when the demand for his services is at its peak.
The possible rewards in closing months are greater than ever too. Last year, three horses ridden by Moore won nearly £3.5m in prize money in October and November alone, while his successes included a double in Australia’s most important events, the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup. Richard Hughes, the champion jockey on the Flat in Britain in 2014 with 132 winners, made a little less than £2m in first-place prize money in the process.
“A couple of weeks ago, things were looking good, so it’s just a matter of everyone being happy, which they were,” Moore said. “It seemed sensible [to come back on Thursday], no travelling and a nice easy start back. It’s nine days to the Arc [in Paris on 4 October]. I’ve made a habit of it, coming back one day before the Arc a couple of times. I missed plenty of big races two weeks ago and two weeks before that, so there’s always big races. There’s no shortage.”
The autumn’s biggest events, including Arc weekend, Champions Day at Ascot and the Breeders’ Cup, would not have seemed entirely complete without Moore, who is widely seen as the finest big-race jockey in the business.
In addition to the major meetings in Europe and America, he can also expect to partner one of Aidan O’Brien’s intended runners in the Melbourne Cup on 3 November, a race he won last year on the German-trained Protectionist.
Moore’s return to riding duty at the O’Brien stable could also bring forward the moment when O’Brien’s son Joseph, who has struggled to maintain a racing weight in recent months, decides to bring his career as a Flat jockey to a close. One persistent rumour suggests that Joseph O’Brien will be training jumps horses for JP McManus from a stable owned by his parents as soon as next spring.
In the main race on the first day of the Cambridgeshire meeting, Sanus Per Aquam was a little boy lost on the run into the Dip inside the final quarter-mile, but between them, Jim Bolger’s colt and Kevin Manning, his jockey, managed to salvage a narrow victory from an apparently hopeless situation as they ran down Tasleet to win in the final stride.
“He didn’t come down the hill very well, he didn’t fancy the loose ground, it was moving under him,” Bolger said. “But when he hit the rising ground, Kevin said he was always going to get there. That horse will improve leaps and bounds next year.
“He’d handle it [the Dip] if it was good, but when it was loose, he wasn’t happy on it. But it helped him then when he did hit the rising ground. We have a Newmarket dip at home and he loves it.”
Bolger is edging towards putting Sanus Per Aquam away for the winter, although a run in the Dewhurst Stakes, for which he is 16-1 (from 33-1) with Paddy Power, remains a possibility.
“I’m fortunate now,” Bolger said. “I know that Vincent O’Brien said years ago that if you have two Derby winners you have none, but I have three nice two-year-old colts. Himself [Sanus Per Aquam], Herald The Dawn, who didn’t fancy the soft ground the last day at The Curragh, and Smash Williams [a Group Three winner in August], he’ll be going to ply his trade in France before the year is over.
“They are all Group One aspirants. I think we’ll steer clear of the Dewhurst this year unless he [Sanus Per Aquam] runs again. Herald The Dawn will go to Longchamp [on Arc weekend] and the other fellow will go to Maisons-Laffitte for a Group Two and then to St Cloud for a Group One, all being well.
“Then of course I have Round Two [an impressive Listed winner in the spring] who got injured, so maybe I have four to think about for next year. He’s fine now but he won’t be back [this season]. He’s been back cantering for a few weeks, but I’d have had to lean on him big time to make the Dewhurst.”
Sanus Per Aquam is available at 33-1 for next year’s 2,000 Guineas, while Smash Williams, at 20-1, is the shortest price for the Classic among Bolger’s strong team of juvenile colts.
