The Hong Kong season is far from over, but, for now at least, Joao Moreira has cleared out at the head of the Jockeys’ Premiership.
Another treble at Happy Valley on Wednesday night for the Magic Man took his total number of winners for the season to 89 with Zac Purton now a full thirty winners adrift with 59 victories.
Purton, in turn, is 25 winners ahead of the third placed Karis Teetan.
Moreira is pushing for what would be his fourth premiership win having previously taken out the title for three straight seasons in 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17.
Purton already has four premiership notches on his belt having won for the last three seasons on the trot, as well as the 2013/14 season when he ended the truly remarkable run of the thirteen-time premiership winner Douglas Whyte, who had reigned supreme before that, from no less than the 2000/1 season until Purton’s triumph in 2013/14.
At the rate he is going Moreira could also be in line to chase down the record haul of winners by a jockey for the season, a distinction Moreira holds with his 171 winners return for the 2016/17 season.
Purton’s season’s best result has been 168 winners while Whyte’s top figure was 116 winners.
John Size, an eleven-time Hong Kong Trainer’s Premiership winner since the 2000/1 season, currently lies in second place in the Trainer’s Premiership with 39 winners, four behind Casper Fownes’ total of 43 winners.
Size is the record holder for the most winners in a season by a trainer in Hong Kong. That highlight came in the 2016/17 season when Size saddled 94 winners, beating the 91 winner mark set by Tony Cruz back in 2004/5.
*Moreira has received a two-day careless riding suspension for his ride in the fourth race at Happy Valley on Wednesday. He is suspended from 3 March 2021 until 8 March 2021 on which day he may resume race riding … which translates to two Hong Kong race-days.
