'Will I be going for the jockeys' title? I don't know what it is anymore'

It's not even April yet, the Craven meeting is a good few weeks away, so the chill in the Newmarket air this morning comes as no surprise. The sun's out though, it's time for elevenses and you might think the need for a woolly hat has passed – but Ryan Moore isn't giving his up lightly, even indoors.

When you're 'the best jockey in the world', of course, you can get away with most things, but it turns out there's an ulterior motive for this sartorial anomaly. "I got butchered by a Chinese barber," explains Moore, fresh back from winning the BMW Hong Kong Derby on Ping Hai Star. "I knew as soon as he took the first bit off that it wasn't going to be good, but you can't stop halfway through, can you? I've already had a lot of stick since I got back, so the hat's staying on."

A quick Google search reveals the extent of the damage – ferocious crop on the sides, an incongruous thatch left on top – but if this is the price of globetrotting fame, then he at least has a healthy slice of the £970,000 first prize from Sha Tin by way of compensation – to add to the £8 million he's earned in each of the last two years. That and the continued adulation of the world racing community for another peach of a ride, which simply enhanced a reputation that has become practically unassailable over the past decade.