by Myra Lewyn
George Moore, who with the late Arthur “Scobie” Breasley ranks as Australia’s greatest jockey, died in Sydney on Tuesday night. He was 84.
Moore dominated Australian racing in the 1950s and ‘60s through his partnership with trainer renowned Tommy Smith. He credited Smith-trained Tulloch, whom he guided in 19 of his 36 victories, including the 1957 Australian Jockey Club Derby and Victoria Derby, as the greatest horse he ever rode.
The trio’s impact on Australian racing is legendary and they were among the inaugural class of inductees into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2001.
Moore’s son, Gary, a former champion jockey himself and a leading trainer in Macau, said that his father’s health had been bad for quite a while and that he had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Moore also is the father of Hong Kong-based trainer John Moore.
The elder Moore retired from riding in 1971 with 2,278 victories in Australia, including a record 119 Group 1 races. He became a successful trainer after hanging up his tack, first in France then in Hong Kong where he won the championship 11 times in 13 years before he retired in 1985.
A ten-time riding champion in Sydney from 1957 to ’69, Moore captured many of Australia’s most prestigious races numerous times, including the AJC Derby and Doomben 10,000 five times each, the Sydney Cup three times, and the W. S. Cox Plate Stakes, Golden Slipper Stakes, and Epsom Handicap, twice each. Moore’s accomplishments were acknowledged with the introduction of the George Moore Medal, which is presented annually to Sydney’s outstanding jockey.
Moore’s prowess in the saddle was not confined to the Southern Hemisphere.
During a short association with trainer Noel Murless, Smith won the 1967 Epsom Derby and Two Thousand Guineas on Royal Palace, One Thousand Guineas on *Fleet II and the ’67 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Busted. He was honored as an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1972.
Moore rode in France for trainer Alec Head and Prince Aly Khan and won the ’59 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Saint Crespin III and ‘60 Prix du Jockey-Club (French Derby) on Charlottesville. He also piloted Sheshoon to capture the ’60 Ascot Gold Cup and Prix de Saint Cloud.
Moore’s contemporaries acknowledged that his best attribute as a jockey was his hands, which earned him the nickname “Cotton Fingers.”
“It wasn’t until you were riding with him in a race that you appreciated how beautifully balanced and how kind he was to his horses and why horses responded so well to him,” Roy Higgins, a champion Melbourne jockey and Hall of Famer, told Gold Coast Publications. “He had the most beautiful set of hands and horses just traveled for him.”
Funeral arrangements have not been finalized.
Myra Lewyn is a Thoroughbred Times daily news editor