October
AprilMoore memories
It was with great interest that I read Paul Richards’s top article about George Moore riding overseas (29/3).
I was living in England in 1967 and had the good fortune to see Moore win the Derby and 2000 Guineas on Royal Palace.
Lester Piggott was the stable jockey for the legendary trainer Noel Murless but parted company with Murless (his father-in-law) in 1967 as he thought Royal Palace was weak and would not be competitive in the classics.
He also felt Murless’s other classic contenders were not up to scratch. How wrong he was!
Moore came over to England to be the principal rider for Murless and the pair of them broke all the current records at that time.
Moore’s balance and timing was outstanding and proved wrong all the pundits who felt that after riding on the tight Aussie tracks he would have problems adapting to the long straights in Europe.
That wasn’t the only way in which Moore surprised the Europeans.
From Australia there were stories of him having infamous loud "blues" with Tommy Smith when returning to scale.
This was not the case in Europe — all we saw was the famous "toothy" Moore grin as he dismounted from winner after winner.
No one had arrived in Europe and won so many classics in such a short period of time.
In those days we had Moore, Breasley, Hutchinson and Williamson flying the flag overseas.
It’s great to see the current crop of jockeys continuing the Aussie tradition, being outstanding riders here and representing us with distinction overseas.
Ascot Vale (Vic)