Jockey domination and a trainers tussle: a look back at the Hong Kong season

Steve Moran of ANZ Bloodstock News reflects on a season that brought a ding-dong trainers' title tussle, a runaway champion jockey and a perfect eight-from-eight campaign from Beauty Generation

There was no shortage of headline stories on Hong Kong racing in the 2018-19 season which concluded just over a week ago, despite its strict regulation, the much smaller pool of horses, trainers, jockeys and owners, and the absence of bookmakers and breeders.

They ranged from the impending, enforced retirement of John Moore; Douglas Whyte’s retirement as a jockey and transition to trainer; Zac Purton's stellar year in the saddle; Joao Moreira’s somewhat cap-in-hand return from Japan; the terrible injuries suffered by Tye Angland in a race fall; John Size's record-equalling 11th trainers' title; proof that Frankie Lor's first season success was no flash in the pan; the ongoing quarantine saga with Australia; the announcement of major prize-money increases for next season; the on-going 'pillaging' of three-year-old stock from Australia and elsewhere; and the emergence of several potentially high-class horses, particularly in the sprinting ranks.