Jamie Moore

Jamie Moore 

Grade 1-winning jockey Jamie Edward Moore was born on January 31, 1985, the son of Horsham trainer Gary Moore and former amateur rider Jayne Moore. He is the brother of multiple Classic-winning jockey Ryan Moore, former jump jockey Josh Moore, and amateur rider cum Sky Sports Racing presenter Hayley Moore.  

Jamie started out as an amateur and achieved his first success, aged 16, on Stormy Skye, trained by his father, in an amateur riders’ Flat race at Nottingham on November 4, 2001. He rode his first winner over jumps on Blue Streak, also trained by Gary Moore, in an amateur riders’ hurdle at Plumpton on November 24, 2002. 

He served an apprenticeship as a conditional jockey with Martin Pipe and recorded his first big race win for him on the David Johnson-owned Well Chief in the 2003 Elite Hurdle at Wincanton. He ended that 2003/04 season as champion conditional jockey. He rode his first Grade 1 winner for the same connections on It Takes Time in the 2005 Ascot Chase, run that year at Lingfield due to the redevelopment of Ascot.

Jamie went on to ride a total of 959 winners over jumps in Britain, plus one in Ireland and nine on the Flat, making 969 in all. His best season numerically was in 2021/22 with 80 wins, placing him seventh in the jockeys’ table, a position he had also occupied in the 2007/08 campaign. 

The highest-rated horse he rode – and the one for which he is most associated – was the star two-mile chaser Sire De Grugy, who was responsible for five of Jamie’s seven Grade 1 victories. Trained by Gary Moore, Sire De Grugy won the 2014 Queen Mother Champion Chase, two Tingle Creek Chases, Ascot’s Clarence House Chase and the Celebration Chase at Sandown. Jamie rode Sire De Grugy in all 17 of his wins, which also included three Grade 2 contests: the Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle and the Desert Orchid Chase, both at Kempton, and Sandown’s Celebration Chase in 2013, the year before its status was raised to Grade 1 level.    

Another horse for which he was known was the enigmatic Goshen, on whom he won seven races including back-to-back renewals of Wincanton’s Grade 2 Kingwell Hurdle in 2021 and 2022. Jamie also suffered a major disappointment when unseated from Goshen after the last flight when his mount was ten lengths clear in the 2020 Triumph Hurdle. 

His final Grade 1 success came on Porticello in Chepstow’s Finale Juvenile Hurdle in 2021.  

In addition to registering successes at the highest level, Jamie won many major handicaps, most notably the Scottish and Welsh Grand Nationals, bet365 and BetVictor Gold Cups, the Totesport Trophy (now Betfair) Hurdle twice, and the Topham Trophy over the Grand National course. 

However, during a career which spanned more than 20 years, he was also unlucky with injuries, but for which he would easily have attained the target of riding 1,000 winners. His first serious fall occurred when crushing two vertebrae at Newton Abbot in July 2004.

Jamie rode what proved to be his last winner on Kotmask, the second leg of a double for his father, in a two-mile one-furlong chase at Plumpton on November 20, 2023. The following day he suffered a stable fracture of his T7 vertebra, broke two ribs and his nose when Mi Sueno fell two out in a handicap hurdle at Lingfield, which left him needing to spend six weeks in a neck brace as part of his recovery.

In February 2024 he announced his immediate retirement from the saddle on medical advice at the age of 39, informing the Racing Post that it was the verdict of a specialist neurologist which was pivotal in the decision to end his career. 

Major wins:

2003: Elite Hurdle – Well Chief

2004: Scottish Champion Hurdle – Copeland 

2004: Edward Hanmer Memorial Chase – Horus 

2005: Ascot Chase – It Takes Time 

2007: Totesport Trophy Hurdle – Heathcote

2007: Topham Trophy Chase – Dunbrody Miller 

2008: Totesport Trophy Hurdle – Wingman 

2008: Greatwood Hurdle – Numide 

2008: Desert Orchid Chase – Fiepes Shuffle 

2011: Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle – Sire De Grugy 

2012: Silver Trophy Chase – Hector’s Choice  

2013: Mersey Novices’ Hurdle – Ubak 

2013: Celebration Chase – Sire De Grugy

2013: Tingle Creek Chase – Sire De Grugy

2013: Desert Orchid Chase – Sire De Grugy 

2014: Clarence House Chase – Sire De Grugy 

2014: Queen Mother Champion Chase – Sire De Grugy

2014: Scottish Grand National – Al Co 

2014: Celebration Chase – Sire De Grugy 

2015: Tingle Creek Chase – Sire De Grugy 

2015: Welsh Grand National – Mountainous 

2018: bet365 Gold Cup – Step Back 

2018: BetVictor Gold Cup – Baron Alco 

2021: Kingwell Hurdle – Goshen 

2021: Finale Juvenile Hurdle – Porticello 

2022: Contenders Hurdle – Goshen 

2022: Kingwell Hurdle – Goshen 

2022: Ascot Hurdle – Goshen