Hayley Moore and Captain Ramius: first part of a notable double

Hayley Moore is unlikely to forget last weekend in a hurry. On Saturday, she rode Captain Ramius to victory in the most prestigious ladies’ race of the calendar, the Longines Handicap, on King George day at Ascot.

Twenty-four hours later she was back at the Berkshire course to take her place in the final of the unfortunately named ‘Filly Factor’, a competition derived to unearth some female race callers. Pitched against Rachel Casey of Ladbrokes, Moore was declared the winner in a close-run final, for which each of the ladies had to call two races on Ascot’s Sunday card.

Moore is of course no stranger to the racecourse. The sister of former champion jockey Ryan and jump jockeys Jamie and Joshua, daughter of Gary and grand-daughter of Charlie, hers is a family steeped in racing history. But while she has the obvious advantage of connections, she was very much a worthy winner.

Deftly batting away tricky questions from John McCririck on At The Races before the final began, she showed her less than loquacious brother Ryan a thing or two about how to conduct media interviews in her moment of triumph.

A Moore she may be, but Hayley is very much her own woman. Let’s hope we see plenty more of her on Britain’s racecourses in the years to come.