All-star cast to line up at Happy Valley for IJC
– A stellar line-up featuring some of the world’s greatest jockeys will contest the Longines International Jockeys’ Championship (IJC) at Happy Valley Racecourse on Wednesday, 4 December.
Among the all-star cast is Frankie Dettori – riding in off perhaps the best season of his long and storied career – who is set to take his place in the IJC for the first time since he lifted the trophy in 2011. This three-time competition winner will aim to cap a sensational year in glittering style at the iconic city venue: the Italian has won 19 Grade 1 races already this season, including three on Europe’s exceptional race mare Enable, and is in pole position to seal a third World’s Best Jockey Award.
The HK$800,000 IJC is a fourrace competition for 12 elite jockeys: eight overseas riders and four based in Hong Kong.
The exciting overseas line-up
Hong Kong
includes another all-time great, past IJC champion and two-time World’s Best Jockey winner Ryan Moore, as well as last year’s IJC victor and former British champion Silvestre de Sousa. Joining the contest for the first time is the newly-crowned British champion Oisin Murphy, one of world racing’s most rapidly ascending stars.
New Zealand’s finest export, James McDonald, will represent Australia after achieving a third Sydney Premiership last term, the prolific Pierre-Charles Boudot will represent France, Ireland’s youthful past champion Colin Keane is set to return after a fine debut last year and Japan’s World All-Star Jockeys champion Yuga Kawada is booked to make his IJC debut.
Hong Kong legends Joao Moreira and Zac Purton will add further lustre to the gilded cast list. Each is a three-time champion in the world’s most intensely competitive circuit and both will be chasing a second IJC victory.
The third Hong Kong spot will go to Karis Teetan who sits a clear third in the Hong Kong Premiership at present – the Mauritian ace bagged a career-best 84 wins last season and has 18 so far this term.
The remaining berth will be decided after the Happy Valley race meeting on 20 November.
Vincent Ho (11 wins) and Derek Leung (six) are battling for the berth allotted to Hong Kong’s leading homegrown rider (graduates of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Apprentice
Jockeys’ School).
Andrew Harding, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Executive Director, Racing, said: “This year’s International Jockeys’ Championship has all the factors in place to be a classic edition. We have a fantastic line-up of gifted riders, champions of great merit and huge appeal, and Frankie Dettori’s return to the Valley off an incredible year of achievement with rare champions like Enable and Stradivarius adds even greater excitement to what is always a thrilling contest.
“The Hong Kong Jockey Club has succeeded again in putting together an outstanding cast of riders and we are looking forward to a great night of sport at what is not only the richest jockey challenge in the world but also the most spectacular.”
In the IJC points will be awarded in each race, with 12 points for first, six points for second and four points for third. The ranking of each jockey will be determined by the total number of points earned over all four races and the IJC champion will be the jockey with the highest accumulated points.
In the case of a dead-heat for any of the first three placings, points will be added and then divided by the number of horses involved. In the IJC, substitute jockeys are eligible for points and if a countback is required it will go back to fourth place.
Homegrown jockeys with 1kg or 1.5kg claims are eligible for selection for the IJC but there will be no claiming allowance in the four IJC races. Apprentice jockeys do not qualify for selection.
The winner takes home a HK$500,000 cheque, secondplace gets HK$200,000 and thirdplace takes HK$100,000, as well as race prize money earned on the night. The four IJC races are worth a combined HK$6.58 million. –