What's in store during the final quarter of the 2024-25 Hong Kong racing season?
Voyage Bubble (white, blue and green colours) will bid to become the second winner of Hong Kong's Triple Crown later this month. Photos: Kenneth Chan
We're into the final quarter of the 2024-25 season and it's about now that those inside the Hong Kong racing bubble start looking for the finish line.
That's not to say there's not plenty to unfold between now and the season finale on July 16, however, with another Group One to come, the outside chance of a title fight in the training ranks and the annual shuffling of the riding roster next month.
Sizeable leads for kingpins
Like he has every season since Joao Moreira's departure, Zac Purton is coasting to the jockeys' premiership – his fourth on the bounce and eighth overall.
Purton leads by 44 over the second-placed Hugh Bowman with 19 meetings remaining and it is now only a matter of how many winners the star Australian can amass.
The trainers' championship is mathematically much closer but the chances of John Size being overrun look just about as slim as Purton being reeled in.
Ten clear of his nearest rival in David Hayes, Size is sitting pretty and looks to have more than enough ammunition to keep powering towards a record-extending 13th title.
Of course, bigger gaps have been closed in Hong Kong title races but chasing down Size is a different story.
More broadly, Size heads to Sha Tin this Saturday needing just one win to hit 1,600 victories in Hong Kong and the 70-year-old continues to close in on John Moore's all-time record of 1,735 successes in the city.
Raiders eye riches again
Rebel's Romance became the first overseas winner of the Group One Champions & Chater Cup (2,400m) last year and the final elite-level contest of the season looks poised to boast some much-needed international flavour once again.
While the Triple Crown quest of local star Voyage Bubble will create plenty of interest, the expected inclusion of decorated globetrotter Dubai Honour and Joseph O'Brien's Al Riffa will give the race real substance.
Officials are confident both gallopers will make the journey and if they do, Hong Kong racing fans will have a genuine late-season highlight to look forward to.
Change afoot in riding ranks
Next season's riding ranks will be largely known when the Jockey Club licensing committee confirms the roster next month and Alfred Chan Ka-hei is one jockey who will not be continuing.
While Chan is retiring because of a lack of opportunities and Antoine Hamelin is expected to head back to France after more than five seasons in Hong Kong, Australian James Orman is one fringe jockey keen to hang around after making a solid start to life in the city in recent months.
While Jockey Club officials are no doubt hard at work looking for new blood to add to the riding roster, it was confirmed in February that South African Brett Crawford will be joining the training cohort.
The man most likely to make way is Benno Yung Tin-pang, who has reached the retirement age of 66.
However, it's been a disjointed season for Yung as he's battled acute myeloid leukaemia and the Jockey Club could certainly do worse than granting the veteran handler a proper farewell season.
Unlike most recent campaigns, all handlers look set to meet the Jockey Club's trainers' benchmark – which is 16 winners for those with a Conghua stable and 14 for those without – with Michael Chang Chun-wai and Jimmy Ting Koon-ho filling the bottom two rungs of the table with 12 winners apiece.
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