THE LONGINES INTERNATIONAL JOCKEYS CHALLENGE AT HAPPY VALLEY PUTS THE BEST AGAINST THE BEST

By Darren Winningham | Wednesday, December 5, 2018

The Hong Kong Jockey Club created Longines International Jockeys Challenge as a lead-up to the Hong Kong International Races, holding the inaugural running in December 1993.

In that year, 14 of the world's top jockeys came to Hong Kong for the then three-race challenge. Olivier Peslier secured the title after winning the first two contests. A courageous concept was born – the best jockeys in the world contesting on a level playing field.

Given its initial success, the Hong Kong Jockey Club decided to run it as an annual event, tweaking the format over the years until it evolved into the 12-jockey four-race points-based competition we see today.

Competing jockeys receive 12 points for a race win, six points for a runner-up and four points for finishing third with the overall champion taking home HK$500,000 ($64,000 USD) – with the runners up taking home $200,000 HKD and $100,000 HKD for second and third placing respectively.

Previous winners include hat-trick scorer Frankie Dettori and Hong Kong champion Douglas Whyte, while Christophe Soumillon and Yutake Take were the first jockeys to dead-heat in 2004. In 2009 Johnny Murtagh, Christophe Lemaire and Ryan Moore tied for first place. Hugh Bowman won in 2016 and Zac Purton won in 2017 (representing Hong Kong).

A local Hong Kong jockey has never won the title. This year they launched an all-out assault attempting to win the crown for the locals – represented by Karis Keetan, Matthew Poon and Vincent Ho.

The locals are placing their faith in Vincent Ho to be the first local Hong Kong jockey to win.

“My horses are pretty good, and I have got the draw. For sure I think I have a chance to win,” said Ho, who is competing in the challenge for the second time after debuting in 2014.

“It would be quite special because a Hong Kong jockey has never won it before. It would be a new chapter for local jockeys.”

The only international who hasn’t ridden in Hong Kong before is Colin Keane, who was the champion jockey in Ireland in 2017 – many locals are tipping him to be competitive on the night.

The other smart local money is on three-time champion of Britain Silvestre de Sousa who comes to Hong Kong again looking to make a statement on the International stage.

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