Hong Kong racing legend John Moore set for Sydney takeover
Hong Kong racing legend John Moore is set to form a heavyweight Sydney stable with brother Gary, and the famed trainer has set his sights on Australian racing’s highest mountain.
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Hong Kong racing legend John Moore has applied for stables at Rosehill Gardens as he prepares to continue his celebrating training career in Sydney.
Moore, 70, has reached the compulsory retirement age in Hong Kong but has no plans to stop training.
Instead, he is excited about the new challenge of forming a training partnership with his brother, Gary, already an established Sydney trainer.
Moore, who spoke to The Daily Telegraph from Hong Kong trackwork, also revealed he is hopeful of bringing his stable stars, Aethero and Beauty Generation, with him to Sydney for the new racing season starting in August.
“I’m looking forward to starting a whole new phase of my career in Sydney, it’s a change of life,’’ Moore said.
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“I have approached the Australian Turf Club, my application is in to form a training partnership with my brother, Gary, at Rosehill.
“Gary already has 20 boxes at Rosehill and I am hoping we can get another 15-20 boxes, this is what we are planning for at the moment.
“We have been given some lovely yearlings from Newgate Farm, China Horse Club, Arrowfield Stud, and (Hong Kong owner) Bon Ho has been very good to give me a yearling or two. You need to have the right horseflesh to kick off with.’’
John Moore is the son of all-time great jockey George Moore, an inaugural inductee in the Australian Racing Hall Of Fame in 2001.
Gary Moore, a former champion jockey himself, said their father “would be really proud” to have his sons training together as a team.
“I know John’s desire is to win a Group 1 in Australia so we will be doing our best to make that happen,’’ Gary said.
John Moore has been a dominant trainer in Hong Kong since he was first licensed there in 1985. He has trained more than 1700 winners and claimed seven trainer premierships, preparing many of Hong Kong’s best-ever horses including Beauty Generation, Viva Pataca, Able Friend, Military Attack, Dan Excel and Friends Of Rome.
Moore has won all the majors in Hong Kong including six successes in the Hong Kong Derby, 10 Hong Kong Gold Cups, six Champions And Chater Cups, eight Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cups, and eight Champions Mile.
Beauty Generation’s narrow loss in the Champions Mile at Sha Tin on Sunday night denied Moore a farewell Hong Kong Group 1 win. This followed sprint sensation Aethero being eased out of the Chairman’s Sprint Prize where it was obvious something was amiss.
Aethero was later found to have bled from both nostrils incurring an automatic three-month racing ban.
Moore said he hopes the owners of Aethero and two-time Hong Kong Horse of the Year Beauty Generation will agree to let their outstanding gallopers continue their race careers in Sydney.
“I am recommending to bring Aethero to Australia, he is still a young horse and we can do more things with him there,’’ Moore said.
“I would like to put him out at Muskoka Farm for a good break in the better air. If I can get this all in place then we can look at aiming him at The Everest.
“Beauty Generation has been a great horse and he went down fighting. I think we can win a good mile race with him in Australia if the owners are happy to race there.’’
Moore hasn’t lived in Australia permanently since the late 1960s but his plans to relocate to Sydney are being dictated by the international travel restrictions imposed by the global coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m training in Hong Kong through until June and hopefully by then I will be able to get back to Sydney and set everything up with Gary for the start of the Sydney season in August,’’ Moore said.