Espinoza, Moore Top Jockeys' Championship

Headed by Victor Espinoza and Ryan Moore, some of the world's top riders will compete in the Longines International Jockeys' Championship Dec. 9 at Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong.

Eight international riders will compete alongside four of Hong Kong's top jockeys in the annual four-race showpiece that offers a first prize of HK$500,000 (about US$64,510), with HK$200,000 ($12,902) to the runner-up and HK$100,000 ($25,804) to the third-placed rider.

Espinoza, who finished second in his inaugural IJC competition in 2003, won the coveted Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I) with American Pharoah   this year. Moore, a three-time British champion jockey and winner of the inaugural Longines World's Best Jockey Award, will attempt to claim a third triumph at his ninth IJC appearance.

Brazilian ace Silvestre De Sousa makes his IJC debut fresh from a well-deserved crowning as the UK's champion jockey, while Gavin Lerena is another first-time champ making his IJC debut, having clinched the South African Champion Jockey title earlier this year.

Australian-based Hugh Bowman heads to the IJC for a second time as Sydney's champion jockey, a title he has won three times. Bowman's predecessor as Sydney champ, James McDonald, also has three premierships to his name, with two achieved in his native New Zealand sitting alongside that 2013-14 Sydney title.

Japan's Keita Tosaki was the JRA's outstanding rider in 2014 and is the third of this year's three IJC newcomers.

Completing the international contingent is French rider Maxime Guyon, who has contested the IJC twice previously and has achieved success in Hong Kong with victories in the Hong Kong Derby (HK-I) on Ambitious Dragon and last December's Longines Hong Kong Vase (HK-I) with Flintshire.

"This is an outstanding selection of some of the world's very best jockeys, which is something we have come to expect at the Longines IJC, an occasion well-established as one of world racing's greatest nights," HKJC executive director of racing Bill Nader said. "The Longines IJC is quite possibly the most intense and competitive jockeys' competition anywhere in the world."

The four jockeys from Hong Kong are headed by 2012 IJC victor Joao Moreira, who is Hong Kong's current champion jockey. With Moreira well clear in this season's jockey standings, the next two places will go to the riders positioned second and third in the premiership table at the close of the cut-off date of Nov. 25. The fourth opening will go to Hong Kong's leading homegrown jockey (a graduate of the Hong Kong Jockey Club's Apprentice Jockeys' School) according to the standings at the cut-off date. 

"One notable change to this year's IJC is that we have one more Hong Kong-based riders than in the past," Nader said. "This reflects the depth of quality we have in the Hong Kong jockey ranks, a fact emphasized considering riders like Zac Purton, Douglas Whyte, Brett Prebble, and Karis Teetan are battling to secure the two available places."

The IJC is a four-race competition in which the following points will be given to each jockey according to the placing of his mount, and the ranking of each jockey will be determined by the total number of points earned in the four races: 12 points for first, six points for second, and four points for third.

In the case of dead-heats for any of the first three placings, points will be added and then divided by the number of horses involved. The appropriate points will then be awarded to the relevant jockey. The count-back will be to fourth th place.

After the opening of wagering in the Jockey Challenge, no substitute rides are eligible for points. In the IJC competition, however, substitute jockeys are eligible for points and related prize money. The IJC champion will be the jockey with the highest accumulated points.