Ryan Moore

The last two weeks have been something else entirely. Eight winners from 17 rides works out at 47% — nearly one in every two races, almost double his already-strong seasonal average. That kind of run is the sort of thing that gets people in weighing rooms and press boxes talking. It suggests a jockey in a rare groove of confidence and timing.

His partnership with trainer A P O'Brien is the engine behind much of his success. Across 157 rides together they have produced 53 winners — a win rate of 34%, or just over 1 in every 3 races. That is a remarkably productive alliance, and it helps explain how Moore has racked up 107 Class 1 wins in his career so far. These are the top races in Britain — the kind run at Newmarket, Ascot and Chester, on the biggest days of the season in front of the biggest crowds. Winning 107 of them in four years is an extraordinary return, and includes victories at York and Goodwood as recently as last summer.

Chester is worth singling out. Five winners from just 8 races there works out at 5 in 8 — a return so high it borders on dominance. Chester is a famously tricky track, tight and left-handed with a short straight, and it rewards jockeys who understand its quirks. Moore has clearly worked it out.

His numbers on normal ground — standard conditions underfoot — are equally striking: 8 wins from 16 races, exactly 50%. Half the time he rides on a good surface, he wins. For a jockey still only four years into his career, with a Class 1 victory at Goodwood, another at York, and his 500th winner now within touching distance, the trajectory is hard to ignore.