Jockey Club jockey games with a power subtext

Regular Hong Kong racing were somewhat surprised by the announcement of four new jockeys for the mid-season months last Wednesday, closely followed by a further Thursday announcement that the gate was closed for retainerships.

Both press releases were surprises for their own different reasons but it's hard not to see the combination of the two as the Jockey Club reminding anyone who might have had doubts about who is in charge.

For one thing, it's unusual to announce new jockeys after just three meetings in the new season. Even the regular short term winter stints are usually announced in October, so telling

the world early that James McDonald (Nov 12-Dec 23), Maxime Guyon (Nov 30-March 1), Hollie Doyle (Nov 5-Dec 23) and Dylan Brown McMonagle (Jan 1-March 29) would join the jockey roster was unusual.

For another thing, in the past 25 years I can't remember a Jockey Club notification that there was no room for retainerships - and, without saying it in so many words, the implication was the former announcement had led to the latter.

For those unfamiliar with the jockey system in Hong Kong, there are two possible licences for foreign riders - club jockey or stable retained jockey.

A club jockey has accommodation and other requirements provided by the Jockey Club and is expected to ride for all trainers. A retained jockey has all costs met by the owners from that retaining stable and is expected to mostly ride for that yard.

Go back to 1997, the year of the handover of Hong Kong back to China, the landscape was very different. There were just two club jockeys and all other expatriate riders were connected to a stable. Some of those retainerships went on for years, some imploded after a season or even a few months, and when that happened the rider had to leave.

But the retainer system very quickly went out of fashion soon after the handover and became a rarity in the early years of this century. Nowadays, they're only slightly more common than unicorn manure.

But they have popped up at times in the last 20 years, sometimes as legitimate relationships, sometimes...well.

Before 2000, the restrictions on taking rides outside of the retaining stable were Draconian but they have been loosened considerably over the years and barely exist now.

So, a jockey who comes to Hong Kong on a retainer can still find the stable insisting on a particular mount but has about 90 per cent of the same freedom as a club jockey to ride whatever he or she wants to ride.

As a result, we have had one or two occasions where jockeys who really wanted to be in Hong Kong but were unable to get a club licence through the front door have been able to secure a back door entry by a stable retainership.

There has even been more than one case years ago, where it was rumoured that the retainership was a sham and that the jockey was paying the trainer for the contract, just as a way to gain a licence.

Surely, that couldn't be true?

Anyway, last week we saw an article from a reputable online publication, IdolHorse, that Joao Moreira would be linking up with trainer Caspar Fownes in a retainership from October to December.

Moreira is a legend and the prospect of him, McDonald, Zac Purton and Hugh Bowman butting heads was delicious.

Still, it had a strange look to it. For one thing, I couldn't recall a retainer for only a couple of months in my quarter of a century in Hong Kong.

There were some that didn't produce the expected success and blew up after a few months, but they had begun, in happier times, as longer term agreements.

Regardless of the thinking behind the length of the Moreira retainer, it looked symptomatic of why we don't see the champion Brazilian now for more than the odd Group One day.

He is a 4-time champion in Hong Kong, only Purton and Douglas Whyte have ridden more winners and would be a great addition to the line up, really put some extra spine into it.

If there can be any criticism at all of Purton's last few years - since Moreira left in 2022 - it is the lack of depth in the opposition. Say what you like about Whyte, whose records Purton has mostly erased from history, but he won 13 straight championships against consistently deep, world class opposition.

When Purton arrived in 2007, he rode a winner at his second meeting but, more than four months later, his total was only eight.

He has the positive encouragement of his wife Nicole to thank for him not throwing it in then and there and returning to Australia. Things picked up in the back half of the season and the rest is history.

However, whenever reminded of this lack of instant success in later years, he would always point to the ridiculous strength of the jockeys' room then.

This is a photo of the full season championship result for 2007-08 season and, in cricket terms, they batted all the way down the order. Whyte, Prebble, Coetzee, Beadman, Mosse, Doleuze, Boss, Saint-Martin, Soumillon, Delpech.

Even the very tail-end of Shane Dye's highly-successful Hong Kong career.

That depth simply isn't the case these days. For example, the French jockeys, who were such a strong group for so long, both numerically and in terms of success - believe it or not there was at one time a whispering campaign that they were too strong - play a minor role at best now.

Fat retainers in the Europe and the Middle East. Christophe Lemaire has preferred Japan permanently and others prefer it as their short-term option.

There are still very good South African riders but they don't dominate in the numbers that they once did.

Licences in Hong Kong now are as much aspirational as the cap on a stellar career the way they were when at least a recent championship win or a long list of G1 wins somewhere was the starting point for licensing.

So that's a detour by way of saying that Moreira would be a welcome addition to the ranks of Purton's opposition but there are complications.

Towards the end of last season, before licences for this term were handed out, it was no secret that Moreira was one of a couple of big name riders to contact the Jockey Club and make it clear they were keen for a gig. It might surprise readers to know that the Brazilian’s outreach was rejected, and this was not the first time.

Why?

Because Moreira, as much as the Jockey Club acknowledges his popularity and prowess, has shown a reluctance to be a seriously full-time club jockey. Recently, he has ridden successful in different parts of the world as it suited him, and this was the source of friction with the Jockey Club even when he toward the end of the time when Moreira was performing his magic act in Hong Kong full time.

So, a two-month retainer looked like the kind of option one might take when a short term club contract wasn't available, with the added benefit of being able to sneak away to a big race somewhere else if the stable owners agreed. The Jockey Club said at the time of that article's publication that no retainer application had been received from the trainer. Well, no worry.

As explained, a retainer is really a piece of business between the jockey and the stable involved - the Jockey Club's only role is to rubber stamp it, provided there is no black mark on the rider and the yard is of sufficient size and standing to justify such a relationship.

In other words, so the jockey will have rides.

As a 4-time champion trainer and one of the leading handlers, Fownes had those bases covered. Retainerships can be approved at quite short notice.

Then, out of a clear sky, came the announcement that four more jockeys would be making cameo appearances in the coming months.

This announcement in mid-September isn't totally unheard of - Moreira himself was approved in mid-September 2013 for an October 2013 start when he first came to be based at Sha Tin - but it is very unusual.

Having then added four new jockeys, at least in prospect, the club took less than a day to further announce that the gates had been closed on retained jockeys because the room was fully-stocked for that period.

It certainly looks like a message was sent to whoever needed to get one - though the club press release did end tantalisingly: "Applications for retained jockeys for a period of the 2025/26 racing season after 17 February 2026 should be submitted to the Executive Manager, Licensing by 1 December 2025."

Watch this space?