HONG KONG LONGINES INTERNATIONAL RACES & JOCKEYS CHAMPIONSHIP - THE BEST EVER CARNIVAL!

By Darren Winningham | Wednesday, December 12, 2018

The LONGINES partnership with the Hong Kong Jockey Club continues to surge forward at a phenomenal pace since they took over the exclusive naming rights of the December feature Carnival in 2012. The event’s profile has now been raised to a level where it is truly a sporting celebration that is shared across the world.

This year that celebration commenced at Happy Valley on Wednesday night with an enormous crowd of 30,174 on hand to watch the star-packed International Jockeys Championship which was won in the last leg by the United Kingdom rider Silvestre de Sousa. Turnover was a massive HK1.348 billion on the program.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club in conjunction with LONGINES then hosted the annual Gala Dinner on Friday night which saw Frankie Dettori crowned the World’s Best Jockey Award. Dettori has now won the prestigious award twice in the past four years, winning it previously in 2015.

Dettori now joins Ryan Moore as a two-time winner of the Longines World’s Best Jockey award established in 2014. Moore won the award in its inaugural year and then again in 2016. Hugh Bowman was bestowed the honour in 2017.

I did some research on how this Award has transpired. The awarding of the Longines World's Best Jockey is based upon performances in the 100 highest-rated Group 1 and Grade 1 races as established for the year by the Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings Committee.

The scoring incorporates races from 1 December of the previous year until 30 November of the current year. Jockeys accrue 12 points for a win, 6 points for placing second, and 4 points for placing third. With the winner accumulating the most points over the period.

In receiving the Award Dettori reflected on the year saying, “I had an amazing September and October which probably won me this Award. This is my 31st year riding and I am really humble and I am trying to enjoy these moments as best I can as I am not going to be here forever”.

When pressed on the issue of retirement he was stoic saying “Whilst my body permits I am still going to carry on. At the moment I feel physically strong and mentally fit”.

Dettori reflected on some of the highlights late in the season paying tribute to the John Gosden trained Enable who successfully defended her Qatar Prix de Arc de Triomphe title from 2017 with another win in 2018. Dettori joked that, “We hope to win a third Arc with her”.

The other horse that he singled out was Stradivarius a dynamic colt trained by John Gosden as well. He dominated the recent season winning all his stakes races. He reflected on the Group 2 British Champions Long Distance Cup at Ascot won in late October saying, “He owns the crown of being champion stayer - you can't take it away from him. He's all heart."

The Sunday extravaganza then featured the four Group 1 races with record prizemoney of HK$93 million over the ten-race program. The day highlighted the biggest racing event on the annual calendar which attracts the best jockeys from around the world as well as 24 overseas thoroughbreds competing from Britain, France, Ireland, Singapore, Australia and a large contingent of nine horses from Japan.

Mr Winifred Engelbrecht-Bresges (the CEO of the HKJC) was delighted with the attendance of 96,388 an increase of 2,000 on the previous year. The day’s turnover for the afternoon’s 10-race card was HK$1.605 billion, a new record for the day and a slight rise on 2017.

“If you look at the quality of horses we have seen today, we have to be very satisfied,” Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges said. “We had 21 individual G1 winners and seven horses rated 120 or above. Japan sent a very strong team of nine contenders and we are extremely happy that we have again attracted horses from some of the world’s top-class trainers, like Sir Michael Stoute, Aidan O’Brien and Andre Fabre, and global giants like Godolphin, the Aga Khan and Juddmonte.”

The carnival ended with a spectacular firework display after the ten races. Ironically, after Hong Kong claimed all four Group 1 races for the first time the theme song the fireworks were choreographed to was “We Are The Champions”.

The LONGINES Hong Kong Jockey Club International Race Meeting is a spectacular event that must be placed on your list to see and do in a lifetime!

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