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Posted 2014-11-21 08:57:53  
Khumalo heads to Hong Kong

 

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.

South African Champion S'manga Khumalo will represent the country at the prestigious Championships and will ride against some of the world's best. 

 

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. 

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