Hong Kong Team of Riders Announced
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Photo: Hong Kong Jockey Club
Jockey Douglas Whyte.
Zac Purton, Douglas Whyte, and Derek Leung will join Joao Moreira as Hong Kong's representatives in the 2016 Longines International Jockeys' Championship Dec. 12, when 12 top jockeys representing nine countries and regions will clash at Happy Valley to battle for the title.
U.S.-Based Geroux Set for HK Jockey Challenge
The list of this year's eight invited jockeys for the Longines IJC was released on Nov. 16. As Hong Kong's current champion jockey, Joao Moreira has the first of four berths allocated to riders from Hong Kong's talent pool. The last three places were filled by two of Hong Kong's current leading jockeys and the leading local jockey (a graduate of the HKJC Apprentice Jockeys' School and currently claiming no more than a 3lb allowance) as of Nov. 23.
Purton and Whyte are the second and fourth-placed riders—behind Moreira—in the Hong Kong premiership standings, with 25 wins and 15 wins apiece as of Nov. 23 (the third-place rider Nash Rawiller will serve a riding suspension starting Dec. 7), while Leung is the leading local jockey with six victories.