Ryan Moore
When the announcement came through about the ‘World’s Best Jockey’, we thought it a mistake, a missive intended for the entertainment section regarding a new reality show.
We imagined a panel, chaired by Lester Piggott, judging a bunch of young men and women hauled around a racing circuit as we watch them weekly in close domestic quarters argue, waste, love, live and ride.
Then they get appraised and some stay, some go. Those who stay are handed a whip. Actually, those who are sent home hear nothing – they just find other jockeys seem to be on all their horses. So, at least that part is real.
Same old, same old. But, no, this is different.
Who is the world’s best jockey? It’s a discussion right there alongside solving pi to an exact number, only far more popular with people in bars.
Everyone, every jurisdiction, has a favourite or two. A piece in the UK Racing Post last week put forward the case for Ryan Moore being considered the world’s best (a strong rebuttal to which was, oddly enough, Moore’s absolute shocker in the Prix Niel the day before publication).
Moore’s standing showcases some of the difficulties in actually sorting out a world’s best jockey. He is clearly very good but, if dropped into Hong Kong for a season, for instance, would be uncompetitive in championship terms – his communication skills appear primitive and he would spend half the season suspended
They’d be calling the 2013-14 version of Joao Moreira “The Straight Arrow” alongside Moore’s dodgem pathways, but letting his mounts run all over the track in Britain attracts Moore no attention at all.
Zac Purton
It’s a “When in Rome” situation. After Zac Purton won on Little Bridge at Royal Ascot at his first appearance in England, he returned with a better understanding of why UK-based riders he had seen here seemed unable to keep a straight line. They all ride like that there, he said.
Top jockeys share certain imperative attributes – foremost are balance, a sense of pace and timing and a desire to win. A certain amount of connection with the horse also helps. Although these manifest themselves in different ways in different centres, the top jockey has to have them and will, in time, fashion them to the tactical or judicial nuances of a new stage. That makes judging them against each other more challenging, since they are not playing exactly the same way everywhere, but then neither are footballers playing the same tempo or tactical niceties in the Premier League vis a vis La Liga.
To date, attempts to provide an answer to the world’s best racehorse question have had problems. Contenders don’t meet in every leg, or even frequently, even when a path to victory is laid out as it was in the World Series some years ago or in the Global Sprint Challenge. That allows for a back door to victory that leaves the series looking silly at worst, or just unsatisfactory. Fans often walk away certain that, whoever won, it wasn’t the best horse.
Another problem has been the lack of a prize at the finish to provide the incentive to more frequent participation. Glory is the ultimate takeaway, the bonus schemes have been designed to be almost impossible and, anyway, it is tough to provide sufficient reward to see envelopes pushed for the sake of winning the series.
In other sports, lives are spent working towards that one moment or one title. The problem with every racing series has been that victory is secondary, a by-product of winning somewhere, some time but not at a particular place or time. It is a competition, just not competitive.
Joao Moreira
The Longines World’s Best Jockey (WBJ) contest keeps faith with these traditions, since there is no prize for the winner other than, presumably, being draped in the flag of his or her nation, anointed with oils and fed peeled grapes before an adoring crowd at the gala dinner that precedes the Hong Kong international meeting in December. Glory it is then.
The format has been designed with the intention of fairness, using the list of the world’s top 100 races, as determined by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, with a scoring system of 12-6-4 points for placing first, second or third. It’s a good thought, probably as good as any, and the large number of races helps, even though the weightings will surprise some.
Of the world’s top 100 races, 17 are in England, 20 in the United States, 11 in France and nine in Japan but 26 are run in Australia – 23 in Sydney or Melbourne – so it’s a good opportunity for riders there to back their fans’ view that they are superior.
It is not unusual for the top Group One rider in an Australian season to win six or seven of the races listed and that would win it.
Another six of the races are staged in Hong Kong, so an Australian based here but able to get regular options in Group Ones at home, in Dubai or Singapore, will have as many bites at the cherry as anyone.
Purton, for example, is fifth on the table thanks to his two Sydney wins this year, 26 points adrift of Christophe Soumillon and Joseph O’Brien, and is in some demand at the carnivals ahead. Moreira is 15th and is engaged for major races during the Australian carnival.
Five Aussies, including Purton, are in the 14 riders with 30 points or more and eight races there coming up, while there are only two English and two French races left for the Europeans unless they have Breeders’ Cup bookings.
The easiest thing to do in a column is to take potshots at anything new, different or even the same. It’s a comforting thought on those days when the screen is empty and time is running out.
But, as much as it is possible to find fault in the World’s Best Jockey concept, it appeals as a genuine attempt to add something to a timeless discussion. It also, of course, helps Longines leverage its strong participation as a sponsor of racing around the globe, including our own December highlights.
The annual series starts with the Hong Kong internationals and ends with the Japan Cup, so it will be all over by the International Jockeys’ Championship at Happy Valley but, since Longines is also the sponsor of that, a nice touch would be to have the leading WBJ point scorers invited as the IJC riders.
www.scmp.com – Alan Aitken
