World’s best headline LONGINES IJC, including Ryan Moore, Zac Purton, James McDonald and William Buick

A stellar line-up will contest the 2024 LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship (IJC) at Happy Valley Racecourse on Wednesday, 4 December.

The LONGINES IJC is the most prestigious jockey challenge in the world and the most lucrative for the winning rider. The four races are worth a combined HK$7.5 million in prize money. Meanwhile, a total prize fund of HK$1 million in bonus money for the most successful riders will be split three ways, with the winner set to receive HK$600,000 with HK$250,000 for second and HK$150,000 for third, respectively.

2023 LONGINES IJC winner Vincent Ho and Hong Kong Champion Jockey Zac Purton will pit their wits and skills against home-based rivals and eight overseas challengers. This year’s overseas contingent will feature English superstar Ryan Moore, New Zealand ace James McDonald, top Norwegian-British flat jockey William Buick, leading female riders Hollie Doyle and Rachel King, prolific Irish flat champion Colin Keane, brilliant Frenchman Mickael Barzalona and Japan’s Yuga Kawada.

The final two spots on the 12-rider roster for the LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship will go to the highest-ranked riders in the Hong Kong championship standings at the cut-off date, which follows the race meeting on Wednesday, 20 November.

Mr Andrew Harding, Executive Director, Racing, The Hong Kong Jockey Club, said: “The LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship is the most exciting jockey challenge every December. This year’s line-up features Ryan Moore, James McDonald and William Buick – who currently fill top three in the LONGINES World’s Best Jockey rankings, and between them this year they have won a string of the world’s leading Group 1 contests. They will compete with the world’s very best established riders for a thrilling night of great sport.”

Moore, McDonald and Buick are all currently in fine form as they all scored in G1 races held at the recent Victoria Derby and Breeders’ Cup meetings in early November.

Moore is no stranger to the LONGINES IJC, having won the event twice. The Englishman currently sits at the top of the LONGINES World’s Best Jockey rankings and is a leading chance to win his fifth World’s Best Jockey title. Among his elite 2024 achievements was surpassing Frankie Dettori to become the most successful active rider at Royal Ascot, in addition to Group 1 triumphs in Great Britain, Ireland, France and the United States of America.

McDonald is also a familiar face in the LONGINES IJC, finishing second twice (2011 & 2021) and third in 2014. This year he has enjoyed another fruitful partnership with local hero Romantic Warrior, winning the FWD QEII Cup and Yasuda Kinen, and is currently in stellar form, scoring his 100th Group 1 victory and his third consecutive success in the W.S. Cox Plate with Via Sistina, after wins on Anamoe (2022) and Romantic Warrior (2023).

Representing Great Britain, Buick is Godolphin’s leading rider, who formed a formidable partnership with Rebel’s Romance this year, winning the Dubai Sheema Classic, Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup, Preis von Europa and Breeders’ Cup Turf. Crowned British Flat Racing Champion Jockey in 2022 and 2023, Buick added Group 1 wins to his tally in 2024 with Notable Speech in the 2000 Guineas and Sussex Stakes.

Adding further class to the line-up is Barzalona, French Flat Racing Champion Jockey in 2021. He currently sits second in the French jockey’s championship behind Maxime Guyon and his partnership with Tribalist to win the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp this season was no doubt his career highlight.

Both Doyle and King have proven records in the LONGINES IJC: Doyle finished joint-third in her LONGINES IJC debut in 2020 and then in 2021 she made one step further in this prestigious event to achieve joint second behind the eventual winner Purton. King made her LONGINES IJC debut last year and was able to make an immediate impact with victory atop Oversubscribed. Overall, she ranked third behind Ho and Purton.

The exciting line-up also includes two more exciting overseas riders – Japan’s Kawada and Ireland’s Keane, both are outstanding Group 1 winning jockeys this year.

A seven-time JRA Award winner for the jockey with the highest winning percentage, Kawada added more Group 1 wins to his tally in 2024 with Jantar Mantar in the NHK Mile Cup, while five-time Irish Champion Jockey Keane scored three Group 1 races in 2024, including Sun Chariot Stakes (Tamfana), Phoenix Stakes (Babouche) and Tattersalls Gold Cup (White Birch).

Purton, Hong Kong’s seven-time Hong Kong Champion Jockey, will chase a record fourth LONGINES IJC crown, having won the event in 2017, 2020 and 2021. He currently leads this season’s local standings with 32 wins (as of 4 November).

Ho became Hong Kong’s first home-grown jockey to win the LONGINES IJC last year. The four-time Tony Cruz Award recipient is also in recent fine form and ranks third in this season’s jockeys’ standings with 13 wins (as of 4 November), just behind Purton and Hugh Bowman.

Trainers will again have an added incentive to target their horses at LONGINES IJC races this year with a bonus scheme which will pay HK$300,000, HK$125,000 and HK$75,000 respectively to the three handlers who achieve the highest number of points across the four races, using the same scale as employed for the jockeys.

The four-race competition works on a points-based system with 12 points for the win, six points for second place and four points to third. The ranking of each jockey will be determined by the total number of points earned over all four races and the LONGINES IJC champion will be the jockey with the highest accumulated points.

In the case of a dead-heat for any of the first three placings, points will be added and then divided by the number of horses involved. In the LONGINES IJC, substitute jockeys are eligible for points and if a countback is required it will go back to fourth placings.

Homegrown jockeys with 2lb or 3lb claims are eligible for selection for the LONGINES IJC but there will be no claiming allowance in the four LONGINES IJC races. Apprentice jockeys do not qualify for selection.

This year’s edition will again feature the process successfully employed in recent years of allocating rides with a model designed to make the contest competitive and to reduce the risk of individual riders being dealt a particularly strong or weak hand.

This will form the basis for a process in which each rider will be allocated four rides based on an estimated average of each horse’s chance as supplied by the Club’s Jockey Challenge odds-compiling team. The odds-compiling team will assess the credentials of every runner in advance and, without knowing who will ride each horse, will submit their final assessments once the barrier draw is made on the morning of Monday, 2 December.

The minimum riding weight for LONGINES IJC races is 118lb. If there are more than 12 entries for a race, the Club’s Handicapping Department will use their discretion to give preference to horses who have shown reasonable recent form.

List of invited jockeys for 2024 LONGINES IJC

Author: Jiong He