Having just collected his third Flat jockeys championship it seems almost strange to recall that there was a time when most seasoned observers thought Ryan Moore was not even the best jockey in his own family.

It was Jamie, his younger brother, who was regarded as the hot a prospect and his success seemed assured when he moved to Martin Pipe’s yard as a teenager. He was Champion conditional jockey in the 2003/04 season with 48 winners and even tipped to take over as stable jockey when Tony McCoy quit Pipe, in favour of a retainer to ride for owner JP McManus, in 2004.

Yet, a year later, Moore had also left the stable to go freelance as the flow of rides from Pipe dried up. “I don’t know what went wrong – they just stopped using me,” he said at the time. “They obviously had reasons and that’s fair enough but I was disappointed because I loved my life down there.”

Some feared that Moore could become yesterday’s news before he really made the headlines, and the 24-year-old has admitted to smiling when hears about riders of the same age as himself being lauded when they are still claiming the maximum allowance, but the silk has already passed last season’s total and holds a position in the top ten of the jockeys’ championship. “I thought it would be a struggle when I left but it’s going good again,” he said.

McCoy recently described Moore as one of the most improved jockeys he had seen recently. Every jockey needs the breaks although the trouble for Moore has been that more than his fair share have come in the form of his bones, the latest of which was three months out with an ankle broken in three places.

The other accepted reality is that nothing succeeds like success and, in the age of reality TV, seemingly nothing keeps a jockey’s name at the top of the list when trainers have a choice spare ride in their gift than a jockey riding high-profile, televised winners.

The majority of Moore’s winners in the last five seasons have been for his father, Gary, and Newmarket trainer Mick Quinlan and they proved the source of the jockey’s profitable weekend, with Fix The Rib winning a valuable handicap chase for Moore Snr on Saturday and Dev in the Grand Sefton Chase at Aintree the following day.

That was Moore’s second win over the Grand National course, following on from Dunbrody Millar in the Topham Chase in 2007, but any suggestion that Dev might be a National contender was met with typical Moore humour. “No,” he said. “He wouldn’t get the trip in an aeroplane.”

The flight plan for Moore this weekend now takes in the ride on Cappa Bleu, for trainer Evan Williams, in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury. The ride came on offer when stable jockey Paul Moloney decided to stay with the yard’s other runner, State Of Play, the winner of the race in 2006 and Williams admitted what had helped sway his decision.

“Cappa Bleu has only 10st, which was a sticking point for a lot of lads. Jamie has been in such blinding form since he came back that we decided to book him. Riding those big winners obviously influenced me.”

Moore will need to be a big experience on Cappa Bleu who showed his potential when he won the Foxhunters’ Chase by 12 lengths at Cheltenham in March but also demonstrated his inexperience on his first run for Williams when he was only third – albeit over an inadequate trip, in a novice chase at Aintree last month.

The market moves have been for State Of Play, although Cappa Bleu is still the shorter price. Then again, Moore knows that being tipped for success is no guarantee. 

Paul Wheeler