Tom Marquand doesn’t come from a racing background but at the age of 12 the decision to get riding lessons led him to pony racing, the British Racing School, and then Arab racing. Next came the biggest step of his career, which saw him undertake an apprenticeship with Richard Hannon Sr. at his Wiltshire yard. The following year he was British Champion Apprentice with 54 wins, and in 2017, he landed a first Group race victory, securing the G3 Dick Poole Fillies’ Stakes at Salisbury with Anna Nerium. In 2018 Marquand rode over 100 winners for the first time, and at the end of that year he spent six weeks in Australia riding for trainer John O’Shea. Marquand added two more G3 successes on his return to Europe, including one in France at Saint-Cloud, and another trip to Australia in 2020 produced a Group 1 double aboard the William Haggas-trained Addeybb in the Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill Gardens and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick. His success Down Under garnered him the nickname ‘Aussie Tom’ from Australians. In 2020, Marquand landed a first British Group 1 and Classic victory aboard Galileo Chrome in the St Leger Stakes at Doncaster, before reuniting with Addeybb to claim the Champion Stakes at Ascot on British Champions Day. In 2021 he achieved further success abroad atop Addeybb with victory in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in Australia and added victory atop Starman in the 2021 July Cup to his top-level haul. In 2023, Marquand has added a further three Group 1s to his record in Great Britain, Australia and the United States, partnering Quickthorn, Dubai Honour and Big Evs to win the Goodwood Cup, Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, respectively. Marquand’s second taste of the IJC saw him finish joint-second following victory aboard Awesome Treasure, while in 2022 he made his third IJC appearance and achieved one of his career highlights as the joint winner. He married Hollie Doyle in March, 2022.

• British Champion Apprentice (2015)

• 2022 – WON (DH)
• 2021 – 2nd (DH)
• 2020 – 10th

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 2022/23 season, completing the campaign with 179 wins and a sixth Hong Kong Champion Jockey crown. He also reached 1,600 career wins in Hong Kong as of July, 2023. Through the same term he set a new single season earnings record of HK$277,712,060, and posted a personal-best seven wins at a single Hong Kong meeting on 9 October, 2022. 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)
• 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)

• 2022 – 12th
• 2021 – WON
• 2020 - WON
• 2019 - 9th
• 2018 - 10th (DH)
• 2017 - WON
• 2016 - 7th
• 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. This year 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 recently. She has won over 500 races worldwide.

• Sydney Champion Apprentice (2016/17)

• Debut

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 and 2021. 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. Through 2023, he has won no less than a further 19 Group 1s. He currently sits at the top of the 2023 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)

• 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 Prix du Cadran atop Trueshan.

• 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).

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

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. This year he added one more Group 1 win to his tally atop Marhaba Ya Sanafi in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains.

• French Flat Racing Champion Jockey (2021)

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

Kazakhstani jockey Bauyrzhan Murzabayev was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan and was raised around horses on his father’s farm. He first rode in Kazakhstan before moving to the Czech Republic, where he won three riding titles. He joined the powerful Andreas Wohler yard in 2017 in Germany and he capped a remarkable rise by claiming four straight championships from 2019 to 2022. He also rode for Peter Schiergen but is now based in France where he is a retained rider for legendary figure Andre Fabre. Murzabayev has Group 1 wins in the Deutsches Derby and Grosser Preis von Bayern, while in Japan he collected shock victory in the Hopeful Stakes aboard Dura Erede in 2022. This year he added one more Group win to his tally atop Junko in the Grosser Preis von Bayern.

• German Champion Jockey (2019, 2020, 2021 & 2022)
• Czech Republic Champion Jockey (2013, 2014 & 2015)

• Debut

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 1,900 JRA wins, and he is just one of nine 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. Last year’s JRA Champion Jockey, Kawada is also a six-time JRA Award winner for the jockey with the highest winning percentage, achieving the feat in 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. 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), 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

• 2021 – 12th
• 2019 – 5th

James McDonald made a big impression in Hong Kong on his IJC 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, 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 July, 2014, bagged a second in 2015/16 and has since added an astonishing three more. He now has over 70 Group 1 wins and nearly 2,000 career wins, and is currently in great form. 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, while through 2022 he has claimed no less than 14 Group 1s including a famous Australian victory aboard Nature Strip in the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, and was crowned the World’s Best Jockey that year. He also enjoyed another super year in 2023, notably winning the QEII Cup and W.S. Cox Plate aboard Romantic Warrior.

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

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

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. 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. Expected to feature once more at the 2023 Shergar Cup, injury in Japan unfortunately ruled Ho out, resulting in his off-season riding stints abroad being shortened ahead of the 2023/24 Hong Kong racing season.

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

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

Mauritian rider Karis Teetan was well ensconced in the top 10 of the South African Jockeys’ Championship when he left for Hong Kong in August, 2013. He entered the South African Jockey Academy at the age of 14 and went on to be crowned South Africa Champion Apprentice in 2008. He graduated in 2009 with 147 wins to his credit. Teetan passed the 100-win mark in every season as a senior jockey in South Africa. His first top level win was in his native Mauritius on 24 November, 2008, aboard Halo Hunter. Teetan represented South Africa in the 2012 International Jockeys’ Invitational in Seoul, Korea and in the 2008 Macau Apprentice Jockeys Invitation Races. He notched an impressive 50 wins in his first Hong Kong season and has continued to build on that good start. He finished third in the 2017/18 championship race with 52 wins, which included a trio of Group 3 triumphs. He topped that in 2018/19 with 84 wins as he secured his first Hong Kong Group 1 win aboard Mr Stunning in the Hong Kong Sprint and again went better in 2019/20 with a personal best 93 wins, cementing third place in the championship race. He reunited with Mr Stunning in the 2020 Chairman’s Sprint Prize. Teetan enjoyed plenty of success through 2021/22, finishing third in the jockeys’ championship with 73 wins. Teetan was sidelined due to illness early throughout the 2022/23 season before returning to his best to reach 600 career wins in Hong Kong.

• South Africa Champion Apprentice (2008)
• International Jockeys' Championship winner (2019)

• 2020 – 8th (DH)
• 2019 - WON
• 2018 – 7th
• 2017 - 9th (DH)

Lyle Hewitson hails from a racing family as his father, Carl Hewitson, is a former jockey who is now a trainer. Hewitson started out in the saddle playing Polocrosse, excelling at both a provincial and national level. At age 12 he set his sights on becoming a jockey and began riding work in Port Elizabeth during school holidays. Instead of heading directly to the South African Jockeys’ Academy, Hewitson’s parents were adamant he finish school first, which meant that he began his race-riding career in work riders’ races outside of school hours. With an education under his belt, Hewitson joined the South African Jockey Academy in 2016 and landed his first win at his 10th ride, aboard Blizzard Belle at Fairview. The emerging talent finished runner-up in the apprentice championship that season with 73 wins. Hewitson secured the champion apprentice title in 2016/17 with 124 wins. He took the title again in 2017/18 with 184 wins and in doing so made history as the first apprentice to win the full South African Jockeys’ Championship since Michael Roberts in 1972/73. His most successful day in the saddle came when he landed a Group 1 double at Scottsville on Saturday, 25 May, 2019 in the Sun Gold Medallion and the SA Fillies Sprint. After departing from his first contract in Hong Kong with three winners, Hewitson campaigned to Japan for a two-month stint which he finished with 19 wins and a pair of Group 2 triumphs. After a short stint in Japan, Hewitson returned to South Africa to capture a third riding title in 2020/21, having ridden 263 winners. Returning to Hong Kong at the end of 2021, Hewitson struck with early success before a shocking fall in December stalled his headway. The affable South African made a remarkable return to race-riding in January, 2020 to close out the season with 27 wins. He enjoyed his first 50-win season through the 2022/23 term.

• South Africa Champion Jockey (2017/18, 2018/19 & 2020/21)
• South Africa Champion Apprentice (2016/17 & 2017/18)

• 2022 – 6th (DH)
• 2021 - 10th (DH)