Hong Kong Jockey Club Apprentice Jockeys’ School graduate Vincent Ho racked up 44 wins as a young rider in New Zealand under the tutelage of leading trainer Lance O’Sullivan. He made a sound start to his Hong Kong career with 10 victories in his first season in 2009/10, including a trio of wins he achieved on only his fourth race day in Hong Kong. He sealed the 2010/11 Champion Apprentice title with 39 wins. Ho reached the graduation benchmark on 1 October, 2012 by claiming his 70th win in Hong Kong on board Castle Hero and he notched 33 wins in 2014/15 to be the season’s leading homegrown rider. On number of wins, Ho enjoyed his best season to date in 2022/23 when he amassed a career-high 96 wins. In that season he also became the second homegrown jockey in history to ride 500 wins in Hong Kong, and took a fourth Tony Cruz Award. However, 2020/21 could easily be regarded as his best season when winning five Group 1 races, including victories aboard Hong Kong’s champion Golden Sixty and Japan’s Loves Only You. Ho added a trio of Group 1 wins to his haul with Golden Sixty throughout the 2022/23 season. He had an interrupted 2023/24 season due to injuries but made history as the first homegrown jockey to claim the International Jockeys’ Championship, only four days before winning a third Hong Kong Mile aboard Golden Sixty. Ho rode a short stint in Europe during the off-season in 2018 and notched a first United Kingdom win at the first attempt, partnering the Mark Johnston-trained X Rated to success at Haydock on 9 August. He returned to Great Britain during the 2019 off-season and competed at the Shergar Cup at Ascot where he won the Shergar Cup Mile aboard Power Of Darkness, helping the Rest of the World team secure Shergar Cup glory. His latest United Kingdom stint in 2024 returned one win atop Love De Vega for trainer Charlie Johnston.

• Hong Kong Champion Apprentice (2010/11)
• Best Freelance Jockey Award (2014/15)
• Tony Cruz Award (2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21 & 2022/23)
• International Jockeys’ Championship winner (2023)

• 2023 – WON
• 2022 – 3rd (DH)
• 2021 – 10th (DH)
• 2020 – 8th (DH)
• 2019 – 3rd
• 2018 – 3rd
• 2014 – 5th

Zac Purton ended Douglas Whyte’s 13-season dominance with his first Hong Kong jockeys’ championship in 2013/14 (112 wins) and in earning his second title in 2017/18 he halted Joao Moreira’s title streak at three. During his first championship season, the Australian ace raced to what was then the fastest 50 in Hong Kong history and became the second rider, after Whyte, to notch 100 wins in a season. Purton lost his title when second to Moreira in 2014/15 with 95 wins, a position he filled for the next two terms, including when notching his second century in 2016/17. His second championship was a remarkable effort as he chased down Moreira to take the lead for the first time that term on June 10, 2018. Five weeks later, at season’s end, he had outpointed Moreira 136-134. The Australian ace took a third consecutive championship in 2019/20 with 147 wins and three Group 1’s, his triumph aboard Exultant in the 2020 QEII Cup saw him become the only rider in history to have won every Group 1 race on the Hong Kong calendar. Purton’s championship winning streak was stopped at three in 2020/21 but he soon reclaimed the title in 2021/22. He took his fifth title after another enthralling battle with Moreira, enjoying huge success with 136 wins, including his third Stewards’ Cup triumph, this time aboard the John Size-trained Waikuku. He also sealed a third International Jockeys’ Championship title. Purton closed out a highly successful 2023/24 season, completing the campaign with 130 wins and a seventh Hong Kong Champion Jockey crown. He also reached 1,700 career wins in Hong Kong in April, 2024. Purton started his career in Brisbane and was an apprentice sensation, winning the championship there in 2003. He then moved on to Sydney where he was twice second in the championship. Purton moved to Hong Kong in September, 2007 and he boasts a famous Royal Ascot win for Hong Kong aboard the Danny Shum-trained Little Bridge in the 2012 King’s Stand Stakes.

• Hong Kong Champion Jockey (2013/14, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2021/22, 2022/23 & 2023/24)
• Brisbane Champion Jockey (2003 – when still an apprentice)
• International Jockeys’ Championship winner (2017, 2020 & 2021)
• World Super Jockeys Series (Japan) winner (2012)
• Hong Kong single season prize money record (HK$277,712,060)
• Hong Kong record for most wins in a season (179 in 2022/23)

• 2023 – 2nd
• 2022 – 12th
• 2021 – WON
• 2020 - WON
• 2019 - 9th
• 2018 - 10th (DH)
• 2017 - WON
• 2016 - 7th
• 2014 - 6th
• 2013 - 2nd
• 2012 - 2nd

Born in Waterperry, near Oxford, Rachel King’s father was an amateur jockey and trainer. She aspired to become a jockey from a young age and gained school holiday experience at Mick Channon’s stable. After graduating from school, she rode as an amateur rider for Alan King. In 2014, she moved to Australia and after working at Bart and James Cummings for two months, she became apprentice for Gai Waterhouse and won her first race in 2015. In her first season she notched a total of 17 wins in New South Wales in 2014/15, and at end of her 2016/17 campaign she claimed the Sydney Champion Apprentice title with 88 wins. King scored her first Group race win in 2017/18, when she partnered Lanciato to victory in the G3 Newcastle Newmarket Handicap. She then made a Group 1 breakthrough in the Spring Champion Stakes atop Maid Of Heaven for now Hong Kong-based trainer Mark Newnham. She won her second Group 1 aboard Knights Order in the 2022 Sydney Cup. In 2023 she finished runner-up in Japan’s World All-Star Jockeys. She added another G1 win to her tally with Ozzmosis in the Coolmore Stud Stakes in that same year. She has won over 600 races worldwide. She rode in Japan in early 2024 and won 16 races for a two-month stint, winning the G2 American Jockey Club Cup and G3 Tokyo Shimbun Hai.

• Sydney Champion Apprentice (2016/17)

• 2023 – 3rd

Ryan Moore is a two-time winner of the IJC. He is the outstanding international rider of recent years and was the first recipient of the World’s Best Jockey Award as a result of 15 Group 1 wins in 2014. He won that accolade again in 2016, 2021 and 2023. Moore hails from a racing family. His first win came for his trainer father, Gary Moore, on Mersey Beat over hurdles at Towcester in May, 2000. His first professional Flat win came on Marwell’s Kiss at Lingfield in January, 2002. He notched a first Group 1 aboard Notnowcato in the 2006 Juddmonte International Stakes at York. Moore has won some of the world’s foremost races including all four features at the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races, Hong Kong Derby as well as the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Melbourne Cup, Japan Cup, Golden Slipper, Dubai Turf, English Derby, Irish Derby, French Derby and several Breeders’ Cup races. He currently sits at the top of the 2024 World’s Best Jockey ranking.

• British Champion Jockey (2006, 2008 & 2009)
• British Champion Apprentice (2003)
• IJC winner (2009 [shared] & 2010)
• World’s Best Jockey Award winner (2014, 2016, 2021 & 2023)

• 2023 – 5th
• 2022 – 9th (DH)
• 2021 – 6th
• 2020 – 6th
• 2019 - 2nd
• 2018 - 5th
• 2017 - 6th
• 2016 - 2nd
• 2015 - 2nd
• 2014 - 4th
• 2013 - 5th
• 2012 - 3rd
• 2011 - 6th (DH)
• 2010 - WON
• 2009 - WON (DH)
• 2007 - 10th (DH)
• 2006 - 6th

Hollie Doyle made a winning debut as a jockey, scoring at Salisbury in 2013 aboard The Mongoose. After completing high school, she joined the yard of David Evans in Wales, and during winter, would spend six weeks riding out at Santa Anita, California. In 2014, Doyle began her apprenticeship at the Wiltshire yard of four-time British champion trainer, Richard Hannon Sr., and she rode out her claim in November, 2017. Doyle rode her 152nd winner of the year on 22 October 2021, surpassing her own record for a British female jockey of wins through a calendar year after her 151 wins in 2020. She made a single-day record for a female jockey with five wins at Windsor Racecourse on 29 August, 2020. Doyle also secured her first Group race victory in the G2 Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket aboard Dame Malliot, and her first Royal Ascot success came with 33/1 chance Scarlet Dragon in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes in 2020. Her biggest success to date also came at Ascot in the 2020 British Champions Sprint Stakes atop Glen Shiel, who gave her a British Champions Day double after Trueshan had powered clear of his rivals in the G2 British Champions Long Distance Cup. Later that year she participated in the IJC for the first time, and become the first female jockey to win leg of the IJC, helping her to finish joint third with Alexis Badel in the event. She won a second IJC race in 2021 on her way to finishing joint-second in that year’s event. She is the retained rider of Classic-winning owner and breeder Imad Al Sagar. She added a second Group 1 to her tally in 2021 with the victory of Trueshan in the Goodwood Cup and has since formed a strong alliance with Nashwa – winning a further two Group 1s aboard the youngster in 2022, including victory in the Prix de Diane. The same partnership added one more Group 1 win in 2023 in the Falmouth Stakes. Hollie married Tom Marquand in March, 2022. Her latest Group 1 success came in the Flying Five Stakes atop Bradsell.

• First female jockey to ride five winners in one day (Windsor Racecourse, 29 August, 2020)
• Single season record for most winners ridden by a female jockey (172 in 2021)

• 2023 - 10th (DH)
• 2022 – 11th
• 2021 – 2nd (DH)
• 2020 – 3rd (DH)

William Buick was born in Oslo, Norway. His Scottish-born father Martin was eight-time Scandinavian champion jockey. After moving to England, Buick rode his first winner on Bank on Benny at Salisbury on 27 September 2006. He finished his first season with 10 winners and in 2008, Buick tied for the British Flat Racing Champion Apprentice title with David Probert. From 2010-14, he was stable jockey for John Gosden and in 2015 Buick joined the Godolphin operation. His rode his first Group 1 winner – Lahaleeb – in Canada in 2009 and has since boosted his Group 1 tally of wins to 108 with success all over the world with elite level wins in England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. His latest Group 1 success came in the Breeders’ Cup Turf atop Rebel’s Romance.

• British Flat Racing Champion Apprentice (tied, 2008)
• British Flat Racing Champion Jockey (2022 & 2023)

• 2020 – 5th
• 2012 – 9th
• 2009 – 8th

Mickael Barzalona was born in Avignon, France, a grandson of Corsican trainer Christian Barzalona and nephew of former Flat and Jumps jockey Armand Barzalona. He began his career with France’s standout trainer, Andre Fabre, with whom he is still associated, and is Godolphin’s number one rider in France. A precocious sensation, he enjoyed a stunning Dubai Carnival in 2011, at age 19, winning major races for the Godolphin operation, and that momentum took him to a famous English Derby win in June of that year aboard Pour Moi for Fabre and Coolmore. He then headed to Hong Kong for a short stint in 2011/12, notching one winner from 42 rides. Barzalona won the 2012 Dubai World Cup aboard Monterosso and the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Turf on Talismanic. In 2021, he claimed the Champion Stakes at Ascot with Sealiway before sealing the French Flat Racing Champion Jockey with 192 wins, while through 2022 the Frenchman has added a further three Group 1s to his haul in France and the United Arab Emirates. Barzalona this year won the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp on Tribalist for a career total of 40 Group 1s so far.

• French Flat Racing Champion Jockey (2021)

• 2023 - 6th
• 2021 – 2nd (DH)
• 2020 – 11th
• 2018 - 8th (DH)
• 2016 - 10th

Colin Keane was born in County Meath, Ireland and made his riding debut in October, 2010. Keane rode his first winner – No Trimmings – at Dundalk in December, 2010 and since boosted his career tally to 1,220 winners. In 2014, Keane became stable jockey for leading Irish trainer Ger Lyons and won the Irish Champion Apprentice Jockeys’ Championship. Keane was runner-up to Pat Smullen in the Irish Jockeys’ Championship in 2015 and has since won the Championship in 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023. Keane has ridden 12 Group 1 winners including Westover (Irish Derby), Broome and Siskin.

• Irish Champion Apprentice Jockey (2014)
• Irish Champion Jockey (2017, 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023)

• 2019 – 4th
• 2018 – 2nd

Yuga Kawada’s great-grandfather was a jockey and his grandfather and father are both horse trainers, all plying their trade in the regional NAR racing circuit. The rider gained his JRA jockey licence in 2004 and has amassed more than 2,000 JRA wins, and he is just one of eleven riders in JRA history to have won all five Classic races – the Satsuki Sho (2,000 Guineas) on Captain Thule in 2008, the Oka Sho (1,000 Guineas) on Harp Star in 2014, the Tokyo Yushun (Derby) on Makahiki in 2016, the Yushun Himba (Oaks) on Gentildonna in 2012 and the Kikuka Sho (St Leger) on Big Week in 2010. He has also been associated with horses like Maurice, Lovely Day and Fine Needle. JRA Champion Jockey in 2022, Kawada is also a seven-time JRA Award winner for the jockey with the highest winning percentage, achieving the feat in 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023. He partnered Loves Only You to win the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf as well as the 2021 Hong Kong Cup at her final start. He enjoyed a successful partnership with Liberty Island in 2023, winning all three legs of Japan’s Triple Tiara. Included among his top-level wins is: Takarazuka Kinen (2015 Lovely Day), Yasuda Kinen (2015 Maurice, 2017 Satono Aladdin, 2021 Danon Kingly), Queen Elizabeth II Cup (2014 Lachesis), Takamatsunomiya Kinen (2018 Fine Needle, 2021 Danon Smash), Sprinters Stakes (2018 Fine Needle, 2023 Mama Cocha), Champions Cup (2019 Chrysoberyl), Hopeful Stakes (2020 Danon The Kid), Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes (2020 Grenadier Guards), Osaka Hai (2021 Lei Papale), NHK Mile Cup (2022 Danon Scorpion, 2024 Jantar Mantar), Oka Sho (2022 Stars On Earth, 2023 Liberty Island), Shuka Sho (2023 Liberty Island), Yushun Himba (2023 Liberty Island).

• 2022 JRA Champion Jockey
• 2019 World All-Star Jockeys Champion
• 2019 Shergar Cup winning team captain

• 2023 – 7th
• 2021 – 12th
• 2019 – 5th

Regarded as one of the world’s best jockeys, James McDonald – popularly known as ‘J-Mac’ – made a big impression in Hong Kong on his International Jockeys’ Championship debut when still a teenager back in 2011, finishing runner-up to Frankie Dettori. He returned the following May and partnered Xtension to victory in the 2012 Champions Mile at Sha Tin. Champion Apprentice in his homeland, he went on to claim the Championship there twice, firstly in 2008/09 and latterly with a New Zealand record tally of 207 for the 2010/11 season. In 2012 he won a first New Zealand Derby. He clinched his first Sydney Championship in 2014, bagged a second in 2015/16. In 2021, he won the Melbourne Cup – Australia’s most famous race – aboard Verry Elleegant, Darley Sprint Classic with Nature Strip, Coolmore Stud Stakes atop Home Affairs and Mackinnon Stakes with Zaaki. He scored a famous victory aboard Nature Strip in the 2022 King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, and was crowned the World’s Best Jockey that same year. McDonald capped 2022 with victory in the Hong Kong Cup atop Romantic Warrior, before winning the QEII Cup and W.S. Cox Plate in 2023 aboard that same horse before the pair successfully campaigned to Japan to claim the Yasuda Kinen in 2024. He also rode Lucky Sweynesse to victory in the 2023 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup and Voyage Bubble to win the Stewards’ Cup. In 2023, he took out a Classic double at Flemington, winning the Victoria Derby and VRC Oaks. In this year’s W.S. Cox Plate Via Sistina brought him his 100th Group 1 victory.

• Sydney Champion Jockey (2013/14, 2015/16, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 & 2022/23, 2023/24)
• New Zealand Champion Jockey (2008/09 & 2010/11)
• World’s Best Jockey Award winner (2022)

• 2023 – 8th (DH)
• 2022 – 9th (DH)
• 2021 – 2nd (DH)
• 2019 – 10th
• 2015 - 9th
• 2014 - 3rd
• 2012 - 10th (DH)
• 2011 - 2nd