Ryan Moore honoured in King’s birthday list for services to racing
Ryan Moore’s MBE recognised a career built on 18 British Classics, 92 Royal Ascot wins and four Derby triumphs. Gary Moore called the honour “well deserved.”
Ryan Moore’s MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list felt like the sport formally catching up with a career that already belongs in the top tier of British racing. The 42-year-old Brighton-born rider was recognised for services to racing and British sport, a nod to the scale of what he has done from the biggest stages in the calendar rather than from the background noise of the weighing room.
Moore’s record explains why the award landed with such force. He won the British Flat Jockeys’ Championship three times, in 2006, 2008 and 2009, then spent years as the retained rider for Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stable, mainly riding for Coolmore. That partnership put him on the right horses for the right races, and Moore kept delivering when the pressure was at its heaviest.
The headline numbers are the sort that make a profile read like an honours case all by themselves. Moore has 18 British Classic victories, including four Derby wins, and 92 victories at Royal Ascot. Those are not longevity stats padded by easy winners. They are the sort of totals that come from showing up in the races that matter, year after year, and finishing the job when the margins are smallest.
His 2013 Gold Cup victory on Estimate at Royal Ascot for Queen Elizabeth II remains one of the defining rides of his career, the kind of result that cuts through to the wider public because it combined prestige, timing and a horse with a story of its own. By 2024, Great British Racing said Moore had gone past 3,300 career wins worldwide and moved beyond 200 Group/Grade 1 victories, a volume of elite success that underlines how rarely he leaves the sport’s biggest days empty-handed.
There was family pride in the reaction as well. His father, Gary Moore, said the honour was “well deserved” and added that he was “very surprised.” The 2026 Birthday Honours list, published on June 12, recognised extraordinary achievements and service across the United Kingdom, and racing had another name in the mix too, with Irish owner-breeder Kirsten Rausing also honoured. For Moore, though, the distinction simply puts an official stamp on what racing has known for years: he has been one of the defining big-race riders of his generation.
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