Less Is Moore In HK

Hong Kong International Race Day is thriving and so is Ryan Moore. That is the message from Sha Tin on Sunday, a meeting that did not disappoint on its considerable promise.

Moore has the most important thing a jockey can own: the confidence of the world's most powerful connections. From Tipperary to Timbuktu, everyone wants him on their horse and nobody can deny his presence is an advantage.

Sectional timing data for the four Group 1 Hong Kong races are shown in the table. The raw figures have been converted to a percentage expressing a horse's speed as a percentage of its average speed for the race. So, for example, in the last two furlongs of the G1 Longines Hong Kong Sprint, Peniaphobia traveled at 100.5%–virtually the same as his speed for the race as a whole.

Click the table below to enlarge:

Split times in excess of 100% represent higher speeds than race average and are coded in green; splits less than 100% are slower than race average and are coded in red; those roughly 100% are coded in blue.

The data helps to disentangle Moore's actions on Highland Reel in the G1 Vase from the mess of visuals gained from watching the race. Moore initially made the running on Aidan O'Brien's improving colt, who was headed down the back straight, looked as if he would be beaten to the punch by Flintshire in the straight, but rallied to win emphatically.

Here, the numbers are interesting. Highland Reel has seemed to lack a turn of foot at the top level, gaining his biggest previous win when allowed to dictate in the GI Secretariat S. on the Arlington Million card. He has been beaten four times this season, most recently when third to Winx in the G1 Cox Plate. However, he was flying at the end of the 12-furlong Vase, running faster in real terms for each of the last four two-furlongs splits and finishing at 108.6% of his average race speed.

This was some function of Moore's actions in the plate. He did not chase the leaders when taken on down the back straight, allowing Highland Reel to build his momentum. But the colt really answered the bell, and he ran down a horse in Flintshire who was not stopping.

In fact, take a look at Table 2, the 2014 Hong Kong International races expressed using the same sectionals grid. Flintshire won last year's Vase in workmanlike style, but this isn't a horse who cannot accelerate. On that occasion, slow early fractions saw him finish the last 2f in 22.42sec (111.4% of race speed) and, though not at his best judged by old-fashioned weights-and-measures handicapping, it was clearly a superb effort in the real, physical world.

Click the table below to enlarge: 

The best phrase for Moore on Sunday was “highly efficient.” The accumulation of his top-level wins across the planet shows that he is able to engage with the task of optimizing a horse's performance in widely different circumstances. His 2015 season was nearly derailed by a neck injury, but you can bet he did not switch off mentally when recuperating.

Sports performance is now a highly studied academic discipline and certainly qualifies as a science. But its appraisal in racing remains rooted in the arts. We want to invest in Moore the idea that he is brilliant and better than everyone else–the “world's best rider”–but it really isn't about lifting horses over the line or making them win. More likely is the notion that top riders minimize errors, convince top connections that they can be trusted on the sport's biggest days, then make the most of a top-quality bag of rides.

We shouldn't relegate O'Brien's role in Highland Reel's development just because we can't see it as readily as Moore's contribution to victory. It's not a cliche to say that racing is a team sport, and victory only comes if everyone in the chain from stud to stable to winner's enclosure does their job. It is hard to think of a better package than Moore brings–save for the PR department! Ironically, however, his stoic, no-nonsense personality has been a significant driver in his path to the top of the sport. It is a tendency of racing analysts to give too much praise to jockeys when they win, and too much blame when they lose. No rider proves his worth in the moment but in the long-run, when it becomes clear that his or her error-rate really is a lot lower than others with similar opportunities.

It is highly interesting to see Moore interface with Joao Moreira, Peniaphobia's rider, in Hong Kong. The latter is quite possibly even the superior of Moore in sheer talent, but he simply does not have the same global reach. Studies on U.S. racing have shown there exists a real home-court advantage for a rider, in terms of gaining familiarity with his or her racing circuit, and it is impressive that Moore can tune his approach to so many racetracks in so many countries.

Racing in the Far East has a distinct rhythm of which Moreira has proved his mastery, plus we have seen the Brazilian-born rider at his best in Australia and Dubai too. But, racing in these territories is roughly homogeneous in terms of pace, while Europe and the U.S. offer different challenges to which Moore has adapted with ease.

Moore's ride on nascent star Maurice in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Mile will only add to his reputation in Japan, where the 4-year-old is trained by Noriyuki Hori. Moore was also on board when Maurice won the G1 Mile Championship in Kyoto last month, and it is a sure bet that he will be visiting Japan on a frequent basis in the years to come.

Racing around the world is domestically oriented, but Moore's focus is on elite races wherever they are run. He has stated his apathy for riding championships in Britain based solely on wins and he is a sentinel for racing to be enjoyed and appraised at the global level. It is said that the racing fan in Britain would rather watch and bet on a glut of ordinary racing in locations he knows, than the best races wherever they are run. Maybe so, but to fully appreciate the sport nowadays demands a more selective menu of top races around the world. In this regard, it's never been more true that less is Moore.

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