Sep 22, 20222 min read

Cryptic notes from the crib

All kinds of stuff about horse racing, yes, but also other stuff that we find interesting and which maybe you will, too.

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The Zac and Joao Show: Ambassadors and role models for horse racing?

We’ve been saying it since last season, and though we don’t like to see some predictions come true, when Joao Moreira announced after yesterday’s races at Happy Valley that he won’t be fit enough to accept rides for the next few meetings because of the reoccurrence of the hip injury that plagued him last season, this wasn’t a surprise.

The Brazilian magic man is a brilliant rider, and if unable to ride according to the lofty standards he has set for himself, he’s not going to just hang in there.

What for? Joao Moreira is a very very rich man and can do whatever he wants. He could return to São Paulo and be with his family, or maybe, like Roger Federer has done, call time on his career and be a great ambassador and role model for horse racing.

Giving horse racing a positive new role model is something that the Hong Kong Jockey Club should seriously think about.

This would be great new and much needed role for the game. It’s one with so many different and inspirational branches.

There’s no point putting a bandaid on a problem only for a bigger problem to occur.

As for the Zac Attack, if he is to bow out of horse racing at the end of the current Hong Kong season, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that he would first love to try and add the Melbourne Cup to his trophy cabinet.

With Hong Kong slowly easing restrictions on air travel, and the Hong Kong Jockey Club not standing in the way of riders making smash and grab raids overseas and knowing four different owners who are thinking of trying to entice Zac to ride their very good gallopers in The Race That Stops The Nation, this and part of next year could be his Farewell Tour to horse racing. And then?

Then, time to sit back, enjoy a mimosa in between falconry and riding some camels over the dunes- and why not continue The Zac And Joao Show as two very much respected ambassadors for the future of horse racing.