The LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship (IJC) jockey allocation announcement ceremony, to be held on Monday (7 December) morning at Sha Tin Racecourse, will be broadcast live at 10:30am on the Hong Kong Jockey Club website and social media channels:-
HKIR campaign site (https://campaigns.hkjc.com/hkir/en/)
HKJC Racing Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HKJCRacing )
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/HKJC )
Twitter (https://twitter.com/HKJC_Racing)
HKJC TV app
The HK$800,000 LONGINES IJC is a four-race competition for 12 elite jockeys, and this year’s edition features six overseas riders and six based in Hong Kong, all battling for the HK$500,000 top prize, the most lucrative jockeys’ challenge winner’s cheque in the world.
Commencing this year, the Club has developed a new model to increase the probability of a more even distribution of winning chances.
Rides in previous IJC competitions have been allocated by a random ballot taking each jockey’s minimum riding weight into account. However, this year’s edition will feature a new process of allocating rides with a model designed to create the contest as competitive as possible while accounting for horses’ handicap weights and jockeys’ minimum riding weights. The intention of the new model is to reduce the risk of individual riders, being dealt an extremely strong or weak allocation.
The minimum riding weight for IJC races remains at 116lb. In the case when there are more than 12 entries for a race, the Club’s handicappers will use their discretion to give preference to horses who have shown reasonable recent form. This will form the basis for a process in which each rider will be allocated four rides based on an estimated average of each horse’s chance as supplied by the Club’s Jockey Challenge odds-compiling team.
The odds-compiling team will assess the credentials of every runner in advance and, without knowing who will ride each horse, will submit their final assessments once the barrier draw is made on the morning of Monday, 7 December.
