Ryan Moore© Photo Healy Racing
With success comes popularity and there's no more popular jockey on the planet right now than Ryan Moore. He's winning and everyone loves a winner. The fact he's quite clearly the real deal isn't in doubt. It has become a shorthand description to label Moore as the world's best jockey. Aidan O'Brien labelled him ?the greatest jockey I've ever seen.? So Moore is clearly a talent worthy of comparison to any generation - but the greatest?
By definition it's something there can't be definitive proof of, and Moore himself hardly appears a type to get worked up about such bar-room discussions. The fact he routinely puts his success down to being on the best horses might make dull copy but it's as valid an argument as the one which states the best jockeys wind up on the best horses precisely because they're the best jockeys.
It's just as valid though to point out how O'Brien has 'previous' when it comes to bigging-up Ballydoyle jockeys. Fallon was eulogised in similarly singular terms, as were Murtagh and Kinane on occasion. It's not just the horses that occasionally provoke the champion trainer into a certain promiscuity with the plaudits. It's hard not to suspect it's a Coolmore branding thing, associating itself with the best of everything: if Gleneagles is their best ever miler then it fits that his jockey is the ultimate too.
Arguing for perspective on the back of Moore's record-breaking Royal Ascot is a big ask, especially since the jockey is 31, probably not even yet at his peak, but already possessed of a global big-race pedigree and also an enviable relationship with the world's most powerful bloodstock empire where he seems to be calling the shots to an unprecedented degree. Everything in the garden looks rosy, maybe in a way Moore's Ballydoyle predecessors might recognise - before the tumbleweed rolled in.
It was noticeable at Ascot how John Magnier went out of his way to praise his jockey, even alluding to a great sense of humour. That mightn't be the first thing that strikes about the normally taciturn Englishman but keeping that sense of humour largely to himself, and those closest to him, is a trait to endear Moore to Magnier & Co. And Moore's reluctance to play the PR game at least has the virtue of being authentic, in a way that spouting endless sound-bite sized crap can never be.
All of which unquestionably makes him the man of the moment, and who knows where Moore will ultimately wind up rated in the pantheon of great jockeys: it's impossible to make definitive statements on the back of potentially less than half a career. But moments change, as do men, and as do fashions. Ultimately greatness demands standing the test of time and significantly it was Ruby Walsh who identified Frankie Dettori as perhaps the best of the jockeys on show at Ascot last week.
Admittedly this was before Moore won on Clondaw Warrior, but the jump legend's contribution was characteristic of many within racing who recognise how in terms of natural talent, the Italian has set a standard for over two decades now. Yes the dips, both in terms of controversy and form, have been dramatic but the peaks have been truly stratospheric and Royal Ascot 2015, not mention the Derby, confirmed that when Dettori's eye is in, there's no one better.
Of course what the top flat owners and trainer want is consistency of performance and the ice-cool temperament to avoid mistakes when it really counts. Dettori may have an edge in natural talent but in the post-Piggott era of the last quarter century, this space would argue Mick Kinane at his best represented something of an ideal in terms of judgement, nerve and consistent excellence.
For what it's worth, a personal Top 5 or Europe's jockeys in that time-period would be Kinane, Dettori, Moore, Peslier - roll your eyes all you like: the Frenchman's a virtuoso - and Murtagh but all that does is show off this space's prejudices. Definitive verdicts are impossible, although needless to say other opinions carry a damn sight more credibility, O'Brien's for instance.
But it's very easy to jump on bandwagons. For such a self-consciously tough industry, it's amazing how important a role fashion plays, especially when it comes to jockeys. Moore is a top man but does anyone believe the excellent Pat Smullen for instance wouldn't have got those nine winners home last week? And he might even have got Kingfisher home in the Gold Cup too - and no, I'm not talking through my pocket.
Incidentally, plenty veteran observers who watched Piggott in his pomp reckon the greatest compliment any other jockey will ever get is to be mentioned in the same paragraph as Old Stoneface, never mind the same sentence - so well done to Moore.
It's hard to know what horse he will be on in an attempt to land a first Irish Derby this weekend as the shape of the race is far from clear, with a widespread perception that the middle-distance colts may be ripe for the picking, leading to speculation around a number of fillies.
What appears pretty clear though is that claims of a lack of competition around Ireland's premier classic won't hold any water this year, which in turn will probably lead to accusations of it being sup-par - a classic no-win situation.
Basically the race looks set to revolve around the Epsom runner-up Jack Hobbs. If he progresses for that run he will be tough to beat. But the ground was quick at Epsom, which he wasn't sure to appreciate, and it's worth pondering if he'll go on fast going again if such conditions apply at the Curragh.
It's a tribute to the scale of Ballydoyle's dominance that Gleneagles' two Guineas wins, and Qualify's Oaks, couldn't prevent a sense that racing's dominant stable hadn't hit full gear until Royal Ascot but last week changed all that. Practically everything they ran upped their game, bar it has to be said, Ol' Man River, who once again failed miserably to live up to his reputation.
Despite that though, the rest of Ballydoyle's middle-distance three year old colts might be about to up their game on faster ground and there could be Derby value to be had in Highland Reel and/or Giovanni Canaletto: basically whichever Moore rides.
