Ryan Moore heads international line-up of Champions at LONGINES IJC

21/11/2014

The 2014 LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship takes place at Happy Valley racecourse on Wednesday, 10 December, when 12 of the world’s elite riders will compete for a share of the HK$800,000 purse. 

A first-prize of HK$500,000 makes Hong Kong’s LONGINES IJC among the most lucrative competitions of its kind in the world and the four-race contest annually attracts superstars from around the globe. Second place is worth HK$200,000 and third place HK$100,000.

For this year’s IJC, the Hong Kong Jockey Club has again assembled a stellar line-up of international riders. Three-time British Champion Jockey and Group 1 ace Ryan Moore leads the standings for the inaugural LONGINES World’s Best Jockey award. He heads to Happy Valley having bagged 15 G1 wins in seven countries so far this year. 

Richard Hughes recently completed a hat-trick of Champion Jockey titles in Britain; Christophe Soumillon is on the cusp of his seventh title in France; Pat Smullen was crowned Ireland’s champion for the seventh time this year; New Zealand’s James McDonald took the Sydney Premiership last season and has twice won the title in his homeland; and S’Manga Khumalo is South Africa’s reigning Champion Jockey. 

From North America, Irad Ortiz is one of that continent’s outstanding young talents. Not only was he crowned leading rider at Belmont’s fall meeting this year, but the Puerto Rican also notched a first Breeders’ Cup success earlier this month. Japan’s two-time Champion Jockey Yuichi Fukunaga is a man with an international G1 pedigree, as is Australia’s Kerrin McEvoy, the reigning IJC champion, who won the Melbourne Premiership in 2012/2013 and is one for the big occasions.

“Once again the LONGINES IJC has attracted an exceptional array of talent from around the world - this is a line-up of champions. The consistently high quality of participants, year on year, is testament to the international importance of this event,” said William A Nader, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Executive Director of Racing.

“This competition has a long tradition of showcasing great riders and this year we have nine of the very best overseas jockeys, all in exceptional form, who will come here and take on three of Hong Kong’s very own. That trio will likely include the outstanding pair of Zac Purton and Joao Moreira, two of world racing’s finest talents. It will be exciting; it will be thrilling; the atmosphere at Happy Valley will be electric.”    

Zac Purton is set to take his place thanks to his status as the reigning Hong Kong Champion Jockey. The brilliant Australian became only the second rider ever to accumulate a century of winners in a Hong Kong season when winning the title for the first time in July. Also likely to line up is the Brazilian sensation Joao Moreira who seems likely to qualify as the current Hong Kong Premiership leader. Moreira is a four-time Singapore Champion Jockey and was runner-up to Purton in last season’s title race.

The final spot is open to Hong Kong’s leading homegrown jockey (a graduate of the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Apprentice Jockeys’ School) according to the standings on 26 November. That looks like being Vincent Ho whose 14 wins for the season so far are five more than his nearest local rivals.

List of invited jockeys for 2014 LONGINES IJC

The 2014 LONGINES IJC is a four-race competition in which the following points will be given to each jockey according to the placing of his mount, and the ranking of each jockey will be determined by the total number of points earned in the four races:

12 points for 1st; 6 points for 2nd; 4 points for 3rd.

In the case of dead-heats for any of the first three placings, points will be added and then divided by the number of horses involved. The appropriate points will then be awarded to the relevant jockey. The count-back will be to 4th place.

After the opening of wagering in the Jockey Challenge, no substitute rides are eligible for Jockey Challenge points. In the LONGINES IJC competition, however, substitute jockeys are eligible for IJC points and related prize money.

The IJC champion will be the jockey with the highest accumulated points.

(*Local jockeys with 2 or 3lb claims are eligible for selection for the LONGINES IJC. There will be no claiming allowance in the four IJC races.)

Profiles of 2014 LONGINES IJC jockeys