james mcdonald | Horse Racing Free Tips

A stellar line-up featuring established greats and riders with red hot recent form will contest the LONGINES International Jockeys' Championship (IJC) at Happy Valley Racecourse on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021.

The exciting line-up includes three previous winners of the world's most coveted jockey challenge crown, including Zac Purton and reigning Hong Kong Champion Jockey Joao Moreira, both multiple champions on the world's most intensely competitive circuit. Reigning LONGINES IJC champion Zac Purton and Ryan Moore will both chase a record-equaling third IJC title.

The HK$800,000 LONGINES IJC is a four-race competition for 12 elite jockeys, and this year's edition features eight overseas riders and four based in Hong Kong, all battling for the HK$500,000 (about US$64,000) top prize, the most lucrative jockeys' challenge winner's cheque in the world.

Ryan Moore is no stranger to the LONGINES IJC, readying for his 15th appearance in the prestigious event at the iconic city circuit. Currently sitting at the top of the LONGINES World's Best Jockey standings, Moore will have another opportunity to add further gloss to his already incredible record in the saddle at Happy Valley next month.

In-form James McDonald joins the star-studded list, having performed at an exceptional level this year. Hailing from New Zealand, McDonald recently broke the record for the most wins in a Melbourne Cup Carnival week, securing 10 victories – including the G1 Melbourne Cup – across the four meetings to surpass Brett Prebble's record of nine.

McDonald, who ranks third in the LONGINES World's Best Jockey standings behind Ryan Moore (112 points) with 96 points, in the best form of his career, having plundered four G1 victories during the four-day Melbourne Cup carnival and is also a clear leader in both the New South Wales and Sydney jockeys' championships.

Yuga Kawada – one of Japan's leading riders – is also performing at the top of his game and arrives in Hong Kong at the end of a year highlighted by his historic win with Loves Only You – the first Japanese-trained runner to score a Breeders' Cup triumph, claiming the G1 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Del Mar earlier this month. Through the current JRA season, Kawada is riding in sublime form with a win strike rate above 28%.

Meanwhile, Australian talent Damian Lane will join the contest for the first time. The 27-year-old rider has firmly established himself as one of the world's rising talents, winning three out of the four legs of Australian racing's 'Grand Slam' by securing the Golden Slipper aboard Kiamichi, Caulfield Cup aboard Mer De Glace and W.S. Cox Plate with Lys Gracieux in 2019.

Mickael Barzalona, representing France, will make his fourth LONGINES IJC appearance this year. He became one of the youngest riders ever to win the Derby when Pour Moi won at Epsom in 2011 and he added another Classic success to his record last year when Andre Fabre's Victor Ludorum won the French 2000 Guineas. His latest G1 win came on Sealiway in the Champion Stakes at Ascot in October.

Aged 30, Barzalona currently leads the French jockeys' championship – the Cravache d'Or – with 172 winners so far for the season after a five-timer at Marseille on Sunday (Nov. 14).

British duo, Tom Marquand and Hollie Doyle, will join the contest for the second time as two of world racing's most rapidly ascending stars. Aged 23 and 25 respectively, the couple sealed third and fifth place in the 2021 British Flat Racing Jockeys Championship and both made their LONGINES IJC debuts last year. In 2020, Doyle became the first female jockey to win a leg of the IJC, allowing her to finish joint third with Alexis Badel in the event.

South Africa will be represented in the LONGINES IJC for the first time since Gavin Lerena's appearance in 2016 with Lyle Hewitson slated to make his debut. The 24-year-old rider, after spending six months riding in Hong Kong through the 2019/2020 season, not only scored a pair of G2 triumphs in Japan but also captured his third South Africa Champion Jockey title in the 2020/2021 season. He has returned to Hong Kong to ride this term.

The final two spots on the 12-rider roster for the LONGINES International Jockeys' Championship will go to the highest-ranked rider in the Hong Kong championship standings, as well as the leading homegrown rider (a graduate of the Hong Kong Jockey Club's Apprentice Jockeys' School) at the cut-off date, which follows the race meeting on Wednesday, 24 November 2021.

Mr. Andrew Harding, the Hong Kong Jockey Club's Executive Director, Racing, said: “The LONGINES Hong Kong International Races and International Jockeys' Championship is the flagship event of Hong Kong racing and one of the World's top five racing events. It is a symbol of Hong Kong's world-class racing and the city's most prestigious international event.

“This year's LONGINES IJC has all the ingredients to provide another memorable edition. We have a fantastic line-up of accomplished riders, many of whom are in career-best form, including Yuga Kawada and James McDonald. Added to that is the return of Tom Marquand and Hollie Doyle who are competing for the second time and will again add great excitement to what is always a thrilling contest.”

“We are delighted to have assembled an outstanding cast of riders and we are looking forward to a great night of sport set against the backdrop of one of the most iconic racecourses in the world.”

“We are grateful for the opportunity to stage the event and will be meticulous in our implementation of the HKIR 2021 racing bubble that underpins this,” said Mr Harding.

The post Ryan Moore Headlines Star-Studded Lineup For Hong Kong’s International Jockeys’ Championship appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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In my new role as announcer at Los Alamitos Race Course, I marvel at the raw speed of Quarter Horses. The Thoroughbred equivalent will be on display at Randwick this Friday night, as Australia's elite sprinters contest the fourth running of The Everest. The world's richest turf race carries a purse of AU$15 million (US$10.8 million) and is part of a recently introduced Pick 7 wager that can be played for just 20c per combination and has a $10,000 pool guarantee this Friday night.

Although the two-mile Melbourne Cup is the nation's most famous race, Australia's forté is actually producing the world's best turf sprinters. While American fans are dubious of anything unproven on U.S. soil, the Breeders' Cup is poorly timed from the standpoint of Australia's rich “Spring Carnival.” However, Aussie sprinters have succeeded in other global arenas such as Royal Ascot, Dubai and Hong Kong. The Everest, at six furlongs, is framed around the concept of slot holders seeking deals with connections of the best available horses. In a flashy display of innovation and savvy marketing, the race that sports the name of the world's highest peak had its post position draw conducted on the glass-bottomed Sky Deck at the top of Sydney Tower (which dwarfs Seattle's Space Needle but is slightly smaller than America's tallest observation tower, the Stratosphere in Las Vegas).

Just as the Sydney Tower has a revolving restaurant, the race itself revolves around Nature Strip (7-2 equal favorite). Recently crowned Australian Horse of the Year for a trio of Group 1 wins in 2019/20, Nature Strip is currently tied for sixth in the Longines World's Best Racehorse rankings (with Almond Eye, Authentic, and Enable). However, Nature Strip's stock has slumped with two losses to begin his 6-year-old season.

As short as 3-2 in Future Book wagering for The Everest a month ago, the gelding exited his most recent defeat with mucus in his trachea. That followed his well publicized dumping of jockey James McDonald at the start of a training race, requiring a subsequent trial to the stewards' satisfaction. Nature Strip retains the confidence of both McDonald, who declares his coat “is definitely looking a bit better,” and trainer Chris Waller, whose vet is “very happy with his blood levels.”

Post positions are potentially important, as the best trip could well decide the outcome among so many top-caliber sprinters. Fortune has smiled upon Nature Strip, Classique Legend (7-2 equal favorite) and Gytrash (6-1), who have drawn adjacent gates in the middle of the field. However, the task of brilliant last-start winner Libertini (8-1) was complicated when the mare drew the extreme outside. Classique Legend was an untapped talent when an unlucky sixth in The Everest last year. More recently, the gray unleashed an electrifying burst to win off a layoff, then was trapped wide without cover when a creditable second.

Classique Legend is conditioned by 82-year-old Les Bridge, who hopes to cap a Melbourne Cup-winning career with a victory by what he considers the best horse he's trained. Adelaide-based Gytrash (pronounced gee-trah) has a 92-year-old part-owner named Valerie Gordon, who has been a racing fan for 84 years. Valerie would spend her share of one of the world's biggest purses “getting the house painted and getting a new bed … and I might get another horse.” Gytrash has been Australia's most consistent topline sprinter of the past twelve months, and won his prep race for The Everest at first asking the reverse way of going (right-handed).

Next in the betting is a massive equine specimen sporting an appropriate name. Behemoth (9-1) is one of horse racing's all-time bargain buys: the winner of $1.6 million was purchased as a yearling for a paltry $6,000. (Incongruously, he cost $120,000 a year earlier as a weanling!) Behemoth has won consecutive Group 1s in Melbourne at seven furlongs, but was unplaced in his only two Sydney races in the opposite (clockwise) direction.

In Behemoth's case, an inside gate (2) might not make for the most comfortable transit, and the distance cutback to six furlongs perhaps makes him worth risking when framing Pick-7 tickets. At longer odds, Trekking (16-1) holds appeal: the Godolphin sprinter, who finished third in this race last year, might appreciate being kept a bit fresher leading into the 2020 renewal … and would certainly be an aptly named winner of The Everest.

Here is a suggested ticket for the 20c Pick-7, which spans the final seven races on Friday's card:

Race 4 – # 1, 9

Race 5 – # 1, 5, 14

Race 6 – # 1, 4

Race 7 – # 1, 2, 3, 7

Race 8 – # 2

Race 9 – # 2, 3, 7, 10

Race 10 – # 1, 6

Total cost: $76.80

The Pick 7 wager is available via all major ADW platforms such as TVG, TwinSpires, Xpressbet, NYRABets, WatchandWager, HPIbet, AmWager, and BetAmerica. The Randwick card will be broadcast live on TVG this Friday night with live crosses to Sky Racing World's Jason Witham trackside (First Post: 9:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. PT) . All races will also be live-streamed in HD with past performances available for free at skyracingworld.com and major ADW platforms.

A native of Brisbane, Australia, Michael Wrona has called races in six countries. Michael's vast U.S. experience includes; race calling at Los Alamitos, Hollywood Park, Arlington and Santa Anita, calling the 2000 Preakness on a national radio network and the 2016 Breeders' Cup on the International simulcast network. Michael also performed a race call voiceover for a Seinfeld episode called The Subway.

The post Australia: The World’s Best Turf Sprinters Ready For The Everest appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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