Firstly, I would like to congratulate Darren Beadman on his achievement of winning the 2003 jockey's premiership. Whilst it was an achievement he has good reason to be proud of, in my opinion he still has a long way to go to emulate the feats of one of our greatest(if not the greatest) jockeys, George Moore.
Beadman is still young and has plenty of time to reach the heights of the one and only "cotton-fingers."
I truly cannot remember George Moore ever riding a "shocker" and some of the records he set will not be emulated(for example, winning 15 of the 28 races in the 1969 autumn carnival).
The only time I remember him being criticized was prior to the 1969 Golden Slipper, he was riding a potential star named Special Girl. He had a lead similar to the one that Nordic Flight had on Saturday. He nursed the filly over the last 100m and was nearly caught and beaten by a another fast finishing runner. The press questioned his tactics somewhat but the important thing to remember was that he still won the race!(So, even when he had a "bad day" he still won).
I am definitely not diminishing the efforts of Beadman or any other current jockey but I was privileged to see one of the "greats" and tend to believe that George was one of a kind-a unique talent.
Besides, no other jockey has ever acquired the "George Moore whistle" which he often utilised to gain a break between runners when he was trapped on the fence behind a "wall of horses" with apparently, nowhere to go.
I know it is difficult to compare riders from different eras but I think George's feats transcends the records of any other jockey I have seen. Remember also, that George retired then made a successful comeback and won a swag of Group 1's on Baguette, Rajah Sahib, Fairy Walk and other top performers.
I hope this bit of nostalgia will get a response from some of our older brigade of forum contributors who, like me have seen none better than "old-cotton-fingers."
Looking forward to hearing your opinions.

Cheers.

i remember the time i went to randwick to back general command in the sydney cup.
back in (around 1970) i was very short on folding stuff and went down for the first race. used to live up in prince street above the track.
the sydney cup was race 5 and had blown everything by the time the cup was on george moore on the general came in around 8 lengths ahead of the field .
then i walked home.

G'day Topsy99,

Yes, the lament of all punters......why didn't I have just the one bet that I came here for.
The only consolation is that we have all done that.
The only downside about George's outstanding record was that the bookies always bet "unders" on just about all of his mounts-similar these days to Greg Ryan on the country and provincial circuit.

Cheers.

This very question was raised again in the press recently and I would encourage everyone to express their views on this pertinent matter.
As you can see I asked a similar question some time ago and I have definitely developed an even healthier respect for the riding feats of Darren Beadman. Not since "old cottonfingers" dominated Sydney racing all those years ago have we been privileged to witness a rider of Darren's undoubted ability and domination of the ultra-competitive Sydney racing scene.
Looking forward to hearing from interested punters.

Cheers.

Could George Moore do it in all states?

Beadman is one to stay away from in Melbourne-a bit like Gai Waterhouse.

PS. I am only young and wasn't born when Moore retired.

Yeah, Real Deal,

George could win anywhere, particularly, one that comes to mind being the Gp1 race in Brisbane in 1971, after he made his comeback on Rajah Sahib.
He also won the 1967 English Derby on Royal Palace for the Queen, so, yes, mate, he was able to take on and beat the best all over the world.
NB. I was only a very young school boy as he was coming to the end of his career but I got the racing "bug" at a very tender age.
Didn't Gai win two Gp1's in Melbourne on the same day during the Melbourne Spring carnival?


Cheers.