BARZALONA STREAKS AWAY WITH THE 2024 IJC TITLE

By Darren Winningham | Thursday, December 5, 2024

Wednesday night at Happy Valley – where the HJKC brand their night racing as “Happy Wednesday” with live music, DJ’s and other on course entertainment for patrons. It is a wonderful night out for HK$10.

The scene was set early for the 2024 LONGINES International Jockey Championship (IJC) with an amazing fireworks, lasers, and pyrotechnic display to present the 8 international and 4 local Hong Kong riders to the 20,000 in attendance.

The amazing opening ceremony was telecast across the world.

On the early betting front the local riders such as Zac Purton and last year’s winner Vincent Ho were pronounced favourites in the betting. There was also some solid support for Ryan Moore representing Great Britain as well with these three dominating the markets.

Scroll down to the bottom of the betting and you would have found Mickael Barzalona, representing France at $34 the outsider in the field.

I looked through history for some improbable successes for France and came back to the famous Battle Of Hastings where William The Conqueror led his men into a battle that seemingly could not be won – and he was victorious. (I guess you didn’t know I was a history buff).

The French are renowned for their tenacity and will to win in the face of adversity. I suppose when you look at the task that faced Barzalona beforehand, it was almost a fait-de-complete that he would not win the LONGINES IJC 2024.

But …

In the first leg of the IJC Barzalona rode Sergeant Pepper, a despised outsider in the markets at around $40, to victory in a thrilling three-way go. The horse is trained by Y S Tsui.

In the second leg Barzalona was narrowly defeated on Forever Glorious, trained by Francis Lui, when James McDonald and Douglas Whyte combined to win with Prince Alex. However, by running second, he banked another six points keeping him in the lead in the IJC.

The vagaries of racing were then very much in play in the third leg where looked like it would be a landslide win for the Frenchman as he partnered Super Unicorn for Frankie Lor. The five-year-old gelding was a heavily supported $2.80 favourite – but did not fill a place.

Instead, Hollie Doyle and David Hayes, who trained a double on the evening, combined with Soleil Fighter to win.

The result of the IJC thus hinged on the last event – with Doyle and McDonald looking to win to take the title away from Barzalona.

It would end up being ‘no contest.’

Aurora Lady, trained by Pierre Ng, was the final runner for Barzalona and he drove the runner to the front and destroyed the opposition, to claim an emphatic and title securing win in the final leg of the 2024 IJC, which also saw him take home the HK$600 000 IJC first prize.

In doing so Barzalona amassed what I believe to be a history breaking 30 points for the Championship.

I suppose you could say the performance of Barzalona, from a French point of view, was simply ‘magnifique!’

James McDonald and Hollie Doyle finished equal second on 12 points – taking home HK$200,000 each. Doyle was runner up for the second time after splitting the prize in 2021.

Barzalona has previously contested the IJC with his best result being in 2021 when he finished second.

Now, like everybody else, Barzalona’s attention will shift to the 2024 LONGINES HKIR, the pinnacle of Hong Kong racing, at Sha Tin on Sunday where he will be looking to land his maiden win at this meeting when he reunites with the Godolphin runner Marquisat in the Longines Hong Kong Vase.

Marquiset is trained by Andre Fabre who trained the 2023 winner Junko.

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