2022 will be a year to remember for esteemed jockey Ryan Moore. With 68 wins this calendar year (at the time writing), of which includes seven triumphs at the famed summer meet at Royal Ascot in June, the 39-year-old is quickly establishing himself as one of the best riders in the world today.
He further solidified his standing as a world-class jockey in his most recent outing in Asia, in which he reigned supreme atop Vela Azul in the Grade One Japan Cup. For those who bet on horse racing, Vela Azul entered as the third favourite, garnering odds of 11/2.
As the strong 18-horse field jumped from the barriers at the Tokyo Racecourse, Vela Azul settled in towards the rear. Moore proceeded to push the five-year-old into the middle of the pack and onto the inside rail, maintaining a steady pace before the field approached the final turn. As the horses came around the bend and up the straight, Moore and Vela Azul found themselves slightly boxed in with 500 metres to run. The race caller even went as far to say that “Vela Azul will need some luck from there”.
However, write off a jockey of Moore’s calibre at your peril. The 39-year-old showed all of his class as he managed to find an unlikely path after Onesto went searching for open ground to launch an attack of his own. That opened up a slight gap for Moore, who took it with both hands and weaved through traffic and charged late to win the one-and-a-half-mile fixture by three quarters of a length from Shahryar and Weltreisende – and in doing so – bagged Vela Azul’s connections a cool £2.5 million.
“I was very lucky to ride a talented horse,” Moore said. “The pace was very steady for the Japan Cup. The horse never had much room, but when he did, he quickened up very well so he was very impressive today.
“I had a good horse that got me out front and we had a nice spot – it wasn’t too far off the pace and following a good horse, the horse in front was having to wait and I was having to wait (too), and when he found a bit of room he quickened up very well. I suppose for today being towards the inside wasn’t a disadvantage.”
It’s the second Japan Cup success of Moore’s career, who achieved the feat for the first time nine years ago onboard Gentildonna. It too was a close finish, with the then four-year-old winning by a nose from Denim and Ruby.
Vela Azul’s triumph in Japan is one of the more unlikely horse racing results, with the thoroughbred winning just two races in 16 tries on dirt, before switching to turf in March of this year. As a result of Vela Azul’s win, the Kunihiko Watanabe-trained thoroughbred has jumped a staggering 150 places in the world rankings. The five-year-old now sits in the top 40 in the rankings for the first time in his career.
