“He’s been riding for probably two months with a fracture to his femur. Talk about concrete. That man is concrete.”
The speaker was champion trainer Aidan O’Brien. The man he was referring to was champion jockey Ryan Moore who has now been sidelined with an injury which could well see him out of action for the remainder of the 2025 Flat Racing Season.
“He (Moore) has been struggling with his right leg since after the Irish Derby and he was getting a lot of things done to it. Ryan also runs a lot, and they think it could have been the running that started it,” continued O’Brien, talking to Racing TV.
“I think when he went to Germany, he rode a filly for us in Germany and she whipped around going to the start. Ryan landed on his feet, so that might have aggravated it … might have opened it up on him.
“There was a lot going on with the leg, and, when they did the scan, they found he had a stress fracture of the femur. When they found that obviously Ryan had no choice but to give it time and that’s the way it will be.”
“I think they grade fractures on a one, two, three, four … and I think his was a four. He is an amazing man really that he was able to keep going with it.”
This injury scenario brings about a rare ‘time out’ in the O’Brien / Moore partnership … and it comes at a time where big race riches beckons.
It means that the all-powerful, O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stable could well be without their retained jockey for possibly, amongst others, the St Leger at Doncaster, the Ireland’s Champion weekend at Leopardstown and The Curragh, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, Champions Day at Ascot and the Breeder’s Cup at Del Mar in California … all of that just between now and the first day of November.
As yet, no estimated time has been pencilled in for Moore’s return.
There will be obviously no shortage of jockey’s putting up their hands to fill the gap left by Ryan Moore’s absence.
It is another case in racing of one person’s setback being another person’s opportunity … and this one is on a pretty grand scale.
