AUSSIE EXPATS DOMINATE HONG KONG’S TRAINER AND JOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIPS

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, May 20, 2025

David Hayes is turning the clock back in Hong Kong.

Hayes won back-to-back Hong Kong Trainer’s Championships in the 1997/98 and 1998/99 seasons and the stable’s treble at Sha Tin on Sunday moved Hayes to within six winners of John Size who leads the trainer’s ladder (56 winners to 50) and six winners ahead of the third placed Ricky Yiu, meaning that 2024/25 Hong Kong Trainers Championship is set to be fought out by the two expat Australians.

Hayes has almost halved the lead that Size held over his stable earlier in the season, bringing the possibility of putting a third Hong Kong Trainer’s Championship behind his name into play … twenty-six years after he last took out the title.

Hayes was back in Australia for a good portion of that time. He returned to Australia in 2005 after training in Hong Kong for ten years … and saddling 458 winners … and then reversed the trip to start his second stint in Hong Kong at the start of the 2020/21 racing season.

Interestingly enough, Hayes finished three winners behind Size in last season’s championship (50 to 47), but, surprisingly, neither of these trainers finished in the top six that season, underlining just how much they have advanced their cause this season in relation to their opposition.

Both have already beaten their total number of winners for last season and prize-money-wise, Size has slipped past his lofty total of last season of HK$ 133 616 020 to a current standing of HK 134 965 150 while Hayes has improved his haul of prize-money from last season’s $HK 77 755 775 to $HK 123 035 805.

That’s big numbers … and to put the current command of these two Aussie expats into further perspective, there is still sixteen meetings left until the season’s end.

Whatever hopes Hayes’ latest treble may have fuelled championship-wise, by Hayes’ own admission, getting closer to Size is one thing, catching him is another challenge altogether.

“John is hard to catch,” Hayes told the HKJC media team. “There’s a glimmer of hope. I’ve got a lot of young horses that are going to start running that are trialling well but, basically, I have to keep going and John has to stop to win. Every time John trains a winner, it’s hard, but it’s worth giving it a go.”

And what a record Size has of being ‘hard to catch.’

In 2001/02 Size won the Trainer’s Championship in his very first season in Hong Kong and he then proceeded to claim a further eleven Trainer’s Championships which ultimately, in 2022/23, saw him break the deadlock he was in with George Moore to become the only twelve-time Hong Kong Trainer’s Championship winner in history.

That role of honour is epic … Size was the Championship winner in 2001/02, 2002/03, 2003/04, 2005/06, 2007/08, 2009/10, 2011/12, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2022/23.

It can make you dizzy reading it.

So, there you have it … two proud and lauded Aussie expats who appear to have taken a stranglehold on this season’s Hong Kong Trainer’s Championship … one on the bounce since returning, the other a constant, sometimes immovable force.

And Aussie expats have got the Jockey’s Championship covered as well.

That Championship was very much a given from the start … barring any significant injury or suspension for Zac Purton.

Purton moved from Australia to kick off his first season in Hong Kong in 2007/08. The rest, as they say, is history … with Purton now on the cusp of his eighth Hong Kong Jockey’s Championship title in a season in which he also broke Douglas Whyte’s record for the most winning rides in Hong Kong’s racing history.

But, while Purton’s success was as much of a certainty as there can be in racing, another Aussie expat, Hugh Bowman, fills a clearcut second place on the jockey’s ladder. Between them, the Purton and Bowman winners have raked in a massive $HK 296 568 315 in prize-money.

Size, Hayes, Purton and Bowman … they are the names that complete the set of Aussie expats dominating the first two places in both the Hong Kong Trainers and Jockey’s Championships.

They might have changed strides in terms of location, but they are all still doing Australia proud!

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