Robbie Albarado, 27, grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana, but it wasn't long before he moved to Chicago where he became the leading rider. Did well in Kentucky where he propelled himself into the top six riders in the US. Has won Grade 1 races aboard the likes of Banshee Breeze and Captain Steve.

Glen Boss, 32, has had four stints in Hong Kong, the last around 18 months ago. He is closing in on having ridden 1400 winners throughout his career which began in North Queensland and which now sees him as one of the top echelon of Sydney riders. Boss has ridden 28 Group 1 winners at the highest level, including a Golden Slipper and each Derby on the eastern seaboard of Australia. He maintains that Shogun Lodge and Sky Heights are probably the best horses he had ridden.

Jim Cassidy, 38, began riding as an apprentice in 1978 in New Zealand and he is now closing in on 1800 career wins. He has notched 89 Group 1 victories in Australia with a further four in New Zealand. Most of the big races on the Australian calendar have fallen Cassidy's way, including two Melbourne Cups (Kiwi 1983 and Might And Power 1997), two Caulfield Cups (Might And Power 1997 and Diatribe 2000), a Cox Plate (Might And Power 1998) and a Golden Slipper (Ha Ha 2001). Cassidy moved to Sydney, where he has been based since, in 1984 and quickly established himself as one of the leading riders. He has been associated with many great horses throughout his career, but Rough Habit and Might And Power have been the best. Cassidy has also ridden successfully on the international scene including, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.

Felix Coetzee, 42, a former champion jockey in South Africa, has been associated with some of the great names of the turf - horses, trainers and owners, you name it - in his homeland. He won South Africa's most important race, the Rothmans July, on three occasions and he has landed quite a few of the main Hong Kong prizes, too, such as the Centenary Sprint Cup (HKGr.1) last season on King Of Danes. Coetzee, now a veteran of the Hong Kong scene, is retained jockey to the Tony Cruz stable. He spent seven seasons, on and off, with Brian Kan Ping-chee before moving for one season to David Hill and then on to Cruz. He is as an outstanding judge of pace, powerful in the finish and his perfectly rated front-running tactics have won him stacks of races down through the years.

Grant Cooksley, born in New Zealand in 1959, started his career in racing as an apprentice over jumps but he soon switched to flat racing and moved to Sydney in 1991, where he was regularly ended up the leading rider. He has ridden in Hong Kong, Macau and is now based in Singapore, although throughout his career he has regularly returned to New Zealand to ride in feature races. He has won all the New Zealand Classics, including the NZ Derby in 1991 and 1995. He has won the Auckland Cup and the Metropolitan handicap three times each, the Sydney Cup twice and the Queensland Derby. Recently he has enjoyed a successful partnership with Bocelli, trained by Patrick Busuttin, on whom he won the Emirates Singapore Derby earlier this year.

Kevin Darley, 41, was crowned Britain's champion jockey for the first time last year becoming the first British-born champion since 1983 and the first champion based in the North of England for almost a century. Darley, however, narrowly lost the jockey's title this season to Kieren Fallon after a protracted battle. The champion apprentice of 1978, he has ridden almost 2000 winners throughout Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Dubai and India. He had 5 winners from 70 rides during his only previous stint in Hong Kong in the 1996-97 season. His biggest win remains Celtic Swing's triumph in the French Derby in 1995.

Frankie Dettori, born December 15 1970, has achieved enormously in such a short space of time. He was Britain's champion apprentice in 1989 and a year later became the first teenager since Lester Piggott to ride 100 winners in a season. The first of two champion jockey crowns followed a year later. By the time he made history riding all seven winners on one incredible Saturday at Ascot in September 1996, he was already firmly positioned as the top jockey to the Godolphin operation and wave after wave of big race winners have followed. Sakhee's success in the Prix de l'Arc in October gave him his 100^th Group 1. Fantastic Light's success in the Breeder's Cup Turf three weeks later made it Group 1 win 101. His record in Hong Kong is quite good too - he won the Hong Kong Cup last year on Fantastic Light and the International Jockey's Championship in 1999. He also won the Hong Kong Vase and the QE II Cup in 1996 on Luso and Overbury respectively.

Shane Dye, 35, was born in New Zealand but arrived in Sydney in 1985 and has since become the third most successful jockey ever to ride in Australia. Dye has ridden the winners of 94 Group 1 races and 300 Group races in all on horses like Tawrrific (Melbourne Cup), Octagonal (Cox Plate, Mercedes Classic and more), Tie The Knot (nine Group 1 wins) and dozens more besides. He also has two Sydney jockey's premierships and four consecutive Golden Slippers to his name. This is his second full season riding in Hong Kong. Last season he won 46 races from 486 rides - a strike-rate of 9.5%.

Teruo Eda, 27, was first licensed as a an apprentice aged 16, and he is approaching 450 career wins with 60 of those arriving this season. His biggest career win arrived in the Sprinters' Stakes (JpnGr.1) last year aboard Daitaku Yamato, whom he rides in the Hong Kong Sprint. He bggest win this term was the Nakayama Kinen (JpnGr.2) on American Boss.

Aged 33, John Egan is approaching 1000 career winners.  He began riding in 1984 and scored his first victory in 1985. He was Ireland's champion apprentice in 1986 and later left his native country to pursue his career in the UK. He has tasted Pattern race success in both countries. He has also travelled extensively, riding winners throughout Europe, Asia and Australia. In his first season as a Club Jockey in Hong Kong, Egan proved a huge success with Group race glory included 51 winners that he chalked up.

Jimmy Fortune was born in Ireland in 1972 but his first winner came at Thirsk in 1988, and his first big win was aboard 50-1 shot Joveworth in the 1990 Ayr Gold Cup. Fortune won the apprentice championship that year, and took the second jockey position at Cumani¡¦s, behind Frankie Dettori. After a spell freelance, and two years as stable jockey to Linda Ramsden, Fortune was offered the job as Robert Sangster¡¦s retained jockey in 1998. He cemented the relationship by winning the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy on the Sangster owned, Chapple-Hyam trained Commander Collins. He spent last winter riding in Singapore.

Having come within three winners of champion Basil Marcus in 1998-1999 despite missing three months of the season, Robbie Fradd, 37, won the jockey's title two seasons ago with 74 winners. A South African rider and provincial champion who arrived here as a Club jockey in 1997-1998, he has now ridden well over 200 winners in Hong Kong. Enjoyed a successful partnership with Fairy King Prawn that yielded plenty of domestic glory and he won the Hong Kong Derby on Keen Winner in 2000.

Yuichi Fukunaga, 23, Eishin Preston's rider, has emerged as one of the hottest young properties in Japanese racing. He has partnered Eishin Preston in all his big race wins and he won the Fuchu Himba (JpnGr.3) this year also.

Mick Kinane, 42, has over 60 Group 1 winners to his name including two Arcs, four King Georges, over 20 Classic winners throughout Europe, the Belmont Stakes in the US and the Melbourne Cup. Ten times the Irish champion, Kinane severed a 15-year link with trainer Dermot Weld to accept one of the best jobs in racing as Aidan O'Brien's stable jockey in October 1998. This season he enjoyed an English and Irish Derby double on Galileo and he won his first Breeders' Cup event on Johannesburg in the Juvenile for O'Brien. Kinane has had 116 winners from 1099 rides - a wins to rides ratio of 10.5% - during the past eight seasons in Hong Kong. Last term he landed the Hong Kong Gold Cup on Idol to add to a portfolio of big race successes in Hong Kong that includes two wins apiece in the Hong Kong Derby and the old Hong Kong International Bowl and the Hong Kong International Vase once.

Anton Marcus, 31, was South Africa's champion jockey in 1999-2000 with 266 winners comprising an excellent wins-to-rides ratio of 26%. He has ridden a total of 1700 career winners, including 30 Grade 1 successes, and has been associated with champion South African racehorses such as Empress Club, Jet Master, El Pincha and Golden Loom. Marcus also has previous racing experience in Hong Kong having been retained by Brian Kan Ping-chee from 16 December 1996 until the end of that season. He rose to that challenge well and rode 16 winners from 197 rides (8.1%). Last year he notched 12 winners from 196 rides (6%).

Basil Marcus, 44, has been champion jockey in Hong Kong on seven occasions. The native of South Africa, where he was a Hall Of Fame rider, has amassed 19 Group 1 wins in the past decade - one Hong Kong Derby, five Chairman's Prizes, four Champions & Chater Cups, five Stewards' Cups, three Hong Kong Gold Cups and one Centenary Cup on horses such as River Verdon, Indigenous, Mr Vitality and Smashing Pumpkin. Has always been renowned for his knack at having his mounts positioned in the right place at the time in the run. Marcus relocated to the UK last season and won the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes in August.

Gerald Mosse, 33, was France's champion apprentice in 1984 when based with the former Hong Kong trainer, Patrick Biancone. His first Group or Grade One winner was on the Francois Doumen-trained Double Bed in Florida in 1988. He has since ridden well over 40 Group 1 winners in Europe. The biggest success of his career remains the triumph of Saumarez in the 1990 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. He was signed up as the Aga Khan's retained rider in France in the mid-1990s. He also won the Hong Kong Derby for the second time on Industrial Pioneer in March. His biggest money-spinning mount in Hong Kong, however, has been Jim And Tonic on whom he won the Hong Kong Bowl, Hong Kong Cup and AP QEII Cup.

Johnny Murtagh, 31, the son of former jockey John, was Ireland's champion apprentice in 1989 while with trainer John Oxx. He won his first Irish Jockey¡¦s Championship in 1995, with a tally of 86 wins, and repeated the feat in 1996 and 1998. His first international successes came in 1995 through his partnership with champion mare Ridgewood Pearl on whom he won the Coronation Stakes, Prix du Moulin and Breeders¡¦ Cup Mile. 2000 was a stellar year for Murtagh, bringing his first Epsom Derby, Irish Derby and Arc wins on the great Sinndar for Oxx, and an association with Sir Michael Stoute that yielded 8 Group 1 wins, including the Breeders¡¦ Cup Turf on Kalinisi. In total, Murtagh notched up an awesome tally of 12 Group 1s. Though less successful by his own sky high standards, 2001 saw Murtagh win another 4 Group 1s.

Corey Nakatani is a West Coast jockey with a fine big-race success rate having won five Breeders' Cup races - the Distaff on Jewel Princess 1996, the Mile in 1999 with Silic, and the Sprint three years in succession with Lit de Justice in 1996, Elmhurst in 1997 and Reraise in 1998. Caller One, however, provided him with his richest ever success in the Dubai Golden Shaheen last March.

Damien Oliver, 29, the only apprentice to win the AJC Derby, won a massive 18 Group 1 races while he was still claiming. He has since added 25 more to that tally, including the Melbourne Cup on Doriemus, the Caulfield Cup four times and two W. S. Cox Plates aboard Dane Ripper and on Northerly this past October. He has been Melbourne's champion rider on five occasions and is the only jockey to have won the Scobie Breasley medal for riding excellence on three occasions. A short spell in Ireland and England last summer yielded a Group 3 success at the Curragh. He had a spell in Hong Kong in 1995/96 riding mostly for David Hayes and 16 winners came his way from 151 rides. His best moments in Hong Kong, however, arrived when he narrowly won the Hong Kong Sprint on Falvelon last year and when he won the Hong Kong Cup on State Taj in 1994.

Olivier Peslier, 29, four-times France's champion jockey, is one of the most powerful jockeys riding today. He had his first big-race success in 1995 on Winged Love in the Irish Derby and has gone from strength to strength since, winning three Arc de Triomphes in a row on Helissio (1996), Peintre Celebre (1997) and Sagamix (1998). In 1998 he steered High-Rise to victory in the Epsom Derby. He enjoyed a spectacular Hong Kong International double on Docksider and Borgia in 1999, the previous year he won the International Jockeys' Championship. In October he won his first Breeders' Cup event aboard Banks Hill in the Filly & Mare Turf. He won the Japan Cup last month on Jungle Pocket.

Top-level French jockey who won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Urban Sea in 1993. Saint-Martin, 36, the son of Yves Saint-Martin, one of the greatest riders in French racing history, has been a huge success story in Hong Kong and he might have won a jockey's championship but for frequent suspensions. Very patient and few have mastered the craft delivering a telling late finish as well.

Hirofumi Shii, 28, was first licensed ten years ago and he is currently the leading rider in Kansai in the west of Japan with 90 winners to his credit and approaching 700 career wins. Last season he guided over 100 winners home. His biggest win this season was on Hong Kong Cup hope Agnes Digital in the Tenno Sho (JpnGr.1).

Christophe Soumillon, 20, was born and brought up in Brussels. In 1996 he moved to Chantilly to become apprentice to Cedric Boutin. His first winner arrived in 1997 and he has made rapid progress since then, becoming champion apprentice in 1999. In April 2000 he won five races in one day (equalling the French record) at Saint-Cloud, including the Group Two Prix du Muguet aboard Fabre¡¦s Dansili. He rode at Hollywood and Santa Anita last winter, returning to France to win his first Group 1, the Prix du Jockey-Club on Anabaa Blue for trainer Carlos Lerner. He finished 5th in the French Jockey¡¦s Championship with 88 wins from 773 rides.

Andrasch Starke, 27, won his first race at the age of 15 and his first Group race aged 18. In 1997 he won four Group 1s and a year later he won his first jockey's championship, and snatched a German Derby success on Robertico. In 1999 he notched up his second championship with a total of 192 wins and third title came in 2000 in a season in which he landed his 1,000^th career victory, and two notable triumphs aboard Samum - in the BMW Deutsches Derby and the Mercedes Benz Grosser Preis von Baden. He rode successfully in Hong Kong last winter, the highlight of which was his triumph in the International Jockeys Championship at Happy Valley last December. He is on course to seal a fourth German jockeys' title.

Gary Stevens, 38, began his riding career aged 16 and he won on his first ride, Lil Star. Now with almost 5000 career winners, including eight Triple Crown and eight Breeders' Cup successes, he has become one of the most successful jockeys in the history of the sport. He was voted into America's Racing Hall of Fame in 1997 and earned an Eclipse Award as the outstanding rider of 1998. He shocked the racing world in December 1999 when he announced his retirement from the saddle owing to persistent knee problems. However, he made a dramatic comeback just ten months later and, typically, won on the big stage shortly afterwards, landing the Breeders' Cup Mile on War Chant. This year he was Point Given's regular pilot before the Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner was retired. He has won the Kentucky Derby three times and the Dubai World Cup once. In 1994/95 during a short stint in Hong Kong, Stevens rode 20 winners from 89 rides - an excellent 22.5% strike-rate. He also rode one winner during 1998/99.

Andreas Suborics, 31, was born in Vienna, where rode his first winner in 1988. Since moving to Germany in 1993 he has ridden over 800 winners including over 30 Group race winners. His first Group 1 win arrived in 1996 with A Magicman in the Prix de la Foret. Two more came in the Grosser Preis von Baden in 1998 and the Grosser Dallmayr-Preis in 1999 on Tiger Hill. He is the retained rider for Stiftung Gestüt Fahrhof, for whom he has shone on the German star "Silvano" in 2001, winning the Singapore Cup, the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup, and the Arlington Million. He also rode Paolini to dual Group 1 success in Italy this year.

Yutaka Take, 32, has been the darling of the Japanese racing scene for a long time now and it's no wonder with ten champion jockey titles to his credit and over 2,000 winners in the bag. He has won practically everything in Japan although it did take him a while to win the Japan Cup. He finally filled the one major domestic omission in his CV last season when Special Week defeated Indigenous in 1999. With hardly anything left to conquer at home, he moved to France this year where he rode over 30 winners including the Group 1 Prix de l'Abbaye for the second time. He also won the race in 1999 aboard Agnes World.

Thierry Thulliez, born in Paris in 1974, joined top French jumps trainer Jean-Paul Gallorini at Maisons-Laffitte and won 17 races over obstacles before moving to Chantilly to ride flat horses. A freelance jockey, Thulliez rides regularly for Maurice Zilber, Jean de Roualle, Pascal Bary and, more recently, Francois Doumen. His greatest success to date came in 1995 when he won the Group 1 Prix de Diane Hermes and the Prix Vermeille on Carling for Corinne Barbe. 2001 has been a good year for him. He finished 8th in the jockeys championship with 74 winners from 720 rides.

Douglas Whyte, 30, from Durban, South Africa, is in his sixth season riding in Hong Kong. After a couple of near misses, he finally became champion last season by a wide margin and he leads the current jockey's premiership. Overall he has ridden over 350 winners here including the Hong Kong Gold Cup and Hong Kong Vase on Indigenous, the AP QE II Cup and Chairman's Prize on Oriental Express and the Centenary Cup on Best Of The Best. One of the proudest moments in his career thus far arrived when London News made history by becoming the first South African-trained horse to win an overseas Group race in the QE II Cup at Sha Tin in 1997.

New Zealander Edwin Wilkinson, 30, had over 10 years of race-riding experience. He first rode in his homeland and was then licensed by the Victoria Racing Club. But now he is riding on an expatriate licence in Singapore where he lies in third place in the Jockey's table for 2001 on 32 winners behind Jumaat Saimee and Oscar Chavez.

Wendyll Woods, 39, has been riding in Hong Kong since 1983 and he has ridden well over 300 winners here in between enjoying plenty of success in the UK. Mistle Cat stands as one of the better horses he rode in Britain. His biggest win this year arrived on Kenwood Melody, his mount in the Hong Kong Sprint, in the Chinese Club Challenge Cup (HKGr.3-1200m) on New Year's Day. He has also won the Sha Tin Trophy and Happy Valley Trophy during his time here.

Yutaka Yoshida, 26, began his riding career at the age of 18, riding his first winner in March 1994. In the 8 seasons that he has been riding, Yoshida has ridden over 380 winners from around 4150 rides. His biggest career win to date has been in the 1999 Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup (JpnGr. 1) on the Yokichi Okubo-trained Mejiro Dober, the champion older mare in Japan in 1998.