Ryan Moore admits it is flattering to be hailed as the best rider in the world, but is not letting such praise go to his head.
Moore has enjoyed another stellar year, with Protectionist’s Melbourne Cup win filling another rare blank on his packed CV.
His perfectly timed delivery of the German-trained runner attracted plenty of plaudits, but he is not getting carried away by those who have widely named him as the greatest on the planet.
“It’s very flattering. Racing, like most sport, is part opinion and some people will have that opinion and others won’t,” he told BBC 5 Live.
“Some days someone’s going to get the better of me and some days I’ll get the better of them.
“You need the right horse, first of all, and it depends how the race shapes.
“Sometimes you can control it, but sometimes it shapes differently and you can’t control it but you get lucky, and other days you might not.
“It’s one of those things you won’t ever prove.
“There are people riding all over the world, people I’ve never seen ride, so it’s hard to say. It’s very flattering but probably untrue.”
Moore also claimed a landmark success aboard Aidan O’Brien’s Adelaide in the Cox Plate, adding to the likes of Hillstar’s Canadian International victory and The Grey Gatsby’s success in the Irish Champion Stakes.
“I take every day as it comes,” he said. You don’t really have any sort of thoughts at the start of the year about how it will go, really.
“Just every day you go out there and try to do as good a job as you can and see where it takes you.
“You just keep looking forwards, racing moves quite fast and there’s always another race upcoming.”