Bloodstock agent Moore preparing for the future
Son of champion Hong Kong trainer looking ahead with business model set for change in coming months
The Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale Round 2, to be held in conjunction with the Inglis Scone Yearling Sale at Riverside Stables on Sunday, will be the latest unusual quirk in a sales season that has been upended, rearranged and impacted heavily by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Australia’s strict quarantine protocols will prevent any international visitors who are not already in the country from being at Inglis’ Warwick Farm complex, creating a different market for a prized group of yearlings.
Among those who will be absent is Hong Kong-based bloodstock agent George Moore, with quarantine ensuring that he is logistically unable to be in Sydney for the sale before returning to the Asian mecca as his father John wraps up his Sha Tin training operation after 35 years.
“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to buy at Easter Round 2 as I really would want to be down there inspecting these horses,” Moore told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday. “I’m really not one to be buying blind and we did already buy four horses at the initial Easter sale, so I won’t be involved.
“Easter was stronger than I expected given everything that’s happening, I reckon that could be the same for Round 2, but I’m not sure that we’d have any more space to add some more yearlings to dad’s new Australian stable.
“There will always be money from Hong Kong though so I’m sure there will be Hong Kong interest.”
While John Moore still has five meetings to go in Hong Kong before the season ends at Happy Valley on July 15, he has already begun to implement programs with his brother Gary that will ensure that the training partnership can hit their straps quickly when they officially begin working together on August 1.
“We’re not sure at the moment when dad will get to Australia, it depends on a few different things, but he is excited to get there,” George Moore said. “We’ve got some really nice horses going into the stable and they all need to be prepped so I’m pushing for dad to get down there earlier, even if he has to do the two weeks of quarantine. He’s changing his mind a bit but it won’t be too long before he’s in Australia. The horses are already under their system and on their feed so it’s a process.”
The Moores will have 24 boxes at Rosehill and their stables will be full of some of the most expensive horseflesh in the land. Among their supporters will be China Horse Club, Newgate Farm and Arrowfield Stud, while Hong Kong-based owner Boniface Ho is set to join forces with the Moores; that will be a new association, with John Moore not training any of Ho’s horses in Hong Kong.
However, the issue may not be filling the boxes but it may be finding the space, especially given the Moore family already owns a number of horses that race in their white and maroon colours as well.
“There are a couple of horses I bought with China Horse Club which are already in the stable, like the Snitzel that we bought out of Girl Hussler, the half-brother to Manuel and a horse we know from Hong Kong in Taking Aim that we bought for $875,000 at Easter,” George Moore said.
“We’ve got two big lots from Arrowfield, a Snitzel and a Not A Single Doubt, they are two million-dollar horses. We’ve got the half-brother to Aethero and Classique Legend, Bon Ho bought him for $1.1 million at Easter, that’s already in the stable. We’ve got a Capitalist colt for Bon Ho too and dad has a Siyouni filly from a good European family, so that’s five.
“And then we’ve got a couple of Vincent Li’s horses, one of the owners from Hong Kong – he has Larson and Shouson with us in Hong Kong at the moment – as well as our purchases from Easter and from Magic Millions, so that’s another eight or so. We’ve got some horses with stables in Sydney that will come across to us and we have to fit in our personally-owned horses too – I have shares in nine different horses and, while some of them may be heading to Hong Kong and won’t go through his stable, five or six of them will be with him. Dad has got shares in some too.
“We don’t have much room, but dad wants to have a very exclusive stable with high-level horses.”
A lot of the focus has been on John Moore’s forced retirement in Hong Kong after he turned 70 in March, bringing to an end a 35-year career that saw him win seven Hong Kong championships, prepare numerous top-class gallopers including the last six to be named the Hong Kong Horse of the Year, and set new Hong Kong records for career wins (1731) and prize-money (almost HK$2 billion or AUD$375 million).
However, the effect of Moore’s departure from Hong Kong is more widespread as it will change the operation of his son’s George Moore Bloodstock operation, with the 38-year-old one of the major players in the lucrative market.
That said, the younger Moore says it will be mainly a superficial change, with the agent buying horses like J J Atkins (Gr 1, 1400m) third The Drinks Cart (Unencumbered) for Hong Kong clients in recent days.
“I’m staying here in Hong Kong – my business is separate to dad’s business,” he said. “I will still be selling to my own clients and I guess the major difference is that we have to figure out which stables they will be going to now. My whole business structure is changing slightly because I need to supply horses for dad’s stable too, which is fine by me, but Hong Kong will still be a priority.
“It’s a bit of a difficult market at the moment as a lot of horses aren’t for sale. We’ve been trying to buy a number of horses recently in both Europe and Australia and a lot of our offers have been knocked back. One example is Pyledriver, a lot of Hong Kong buyers would love to get their hands on him, but he’s not for sale as he’s going to the Derby next week. The clients are still there, they are still buying horses, but it’s been hard to get these offers accepted.
“It’s interesting too because, during the lockdown, it was obviously difficult to source horses in Europe and New Zealand given they weren’t racing, so buyers were paying a premium to get horses from Australia. Some of the offers that were on the table for horses like Masked Crusader, Kinane and Shadow Hero were very big; obviously, only Shadow Hero was sold in the end.”
The acquisition period for horses bound for Hong Kong generally follows an unofficial set calendar, based on when the big races are run and the timetable to get horses into the city ahead of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series.
The weeks after Royal Ascot present as one of the most important windows, with the three-year-old features usually done and dusted. However, with the Epsom Derby (Gr 1, 1m 4f) being run next weekend along with the Prix du Jockey Club (Gr 1, 2100m), the usual schedule has been thrown out the window.
“There’s not that many horses that are coming out of Ascot that I know about,” Moore said. “There was quite a bit of interest for those horses from America, but the only horse really out of Ascot right now is Berlin Tango. Another horse that has been sold to Hong Kong is Smokey Bear, but otherwise, it’s been pretty light.
“I think, this year, Goodwood will take the place of Ascot and I think that more will be keen to sell after Goodwood. There’s still quite a market for English horses in Hong Kong.”
The only horse from John Moore’s Hong Kong stable who will join his Australian operation is a former Brit in Sunny Speed (Havana Gold), who finished third to Furore (Pierro) and Waikuku (Harbour Watch) in the Hong Kong Derby (Listed, 2000m) last year. Known as Crack On Crack On in the UK, he was a three-time winner at Lingfield, Haydock and Ascot between seven furlongs and a mile.
“He’s down in Victoria with Ben Mason at the moment just completing his rehab,” Moore said. “He’s coming back from a tendon injury, nearly a year ago now, and we might train him on the other leg in Melbourne just to keep him going counter-clockwise to take the pressure off that tendon.”
One way in which Moore will enter new territory is in the tried horse market in the UK, attempting to fulfill a family dream by finding a Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) horse.
It is a race that eluded his grandfather and namesake, legendary jockey George Moore, whose best finish was third on Caranna (Volagnes) in 1956; the Melbourne Cup was the only trophy missing from a resume that included every Australian major as well as the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr 1, 2400m), the Epsom Derby and the 2000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) among other global features.
John Moore has long stated his desire to win the Cup and his son will be ready to scout the Tattersalls Horses In Training Sale at Newmarket in late October looking to follow a well-tried formula for sourcing potential staying stock for Australia.
“We will be opening up to the Horses In Training sale over in Europe to look for a stout horse, potentially a Melbourne Cup horse,” he said. “Even if not, maybe a Sydney Cup horse or any of those races in Sydney which are worth a bit and are just below that level. There are a few options there, we could syndicate or we could go into partnership with four or five of our owners from Hong Kong.
“We’ve had quite a bit of interest, so that’s another door that might be open. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but we’ve just needed the right pieces in place. With dad down there, I know exactly how the horses will be trained and what they will be doing. It’s just adapting to a changing environment – instead of just buying those 2000-metre types for the Hong Kong Derby, we’re looking for different types.
“It’s something we’ve done before. We were buying those Derby types from the UK and once everyone flocked there, we went to Australia and we were sourcing Horses of the Year from Australia. I like to think that we’ve shown we’re good at adapting to new things in the past and, in a world that is ever-changing, we’re just trying to make our operation work.”
Moore also believes that having his father in Sydney will have a positive effect on racing in New South Wales, with more Hong Kong owners willing to invest in racing prospects down under in addition to those bound for Sha Tin.
“I’ve spoken to quite a few owners up here and they’ve indicated that, with dad down there, they’d be more interested in investing heavily in yearlings,” he said. “They know they will be getting something they are familiar with as dad will prepare them at Rosehill in the same way he would prepare them at Sha Tin. I think you will see some of the bigger Hong Kong owners increasing their Australian portfolio.”
Momentum is everything in the Hong Kong racing environment, where owners are notoriously fickle and a good or bad meeting can change luck on a dime. And while the same momentum is less important in Australian racing, the Moore family acknowledges that they are hoping for a big first half of the season to be able to build the strongest stable possible.
“Everything hinges on a strong start for dad and uncle Gary, but I don’t see any reason why they won’t do well in their first year with the amount of good stock they have coming through the stable,” George Moore said. “We are hoping to have horses getting into races like the Breeders’ Plate, some of those early two-year-old races, and obviously we’d love to have some horses heading to the Golden Slipper so hopefully we can have some early success.
“It really is an exciting time. Now, we just have to get dad down there!”