Joao Moreira riding nine horses at a single meeting for John Size might look like “Dream Team 2.0” but the jockey says his big day out for the champion stable is simply a case of taking the best possible rides.
For the best part of 10 seasons, Size and 13-time champion jockey Douglas Whyte earned the “Dream Team” tag as the pair dominated and the South African getting first choice of rides out of the powerful stable.
The pair’s dominance even led to the so-called “Size-Whyte” rule, which limited the amount of rides a jockey could have for a trainer over the course of a season.
Moreira rides for Size regularly – but the lightweight tends to share his talent more widely than Whyte did during his reign – and says the vast majority of Sunday’s bookings are simply a case of “the right horses at the right time”.
“Nobody would say anything if I didn’t have a ride on a particular day for John, which happens, I make my decision each meeting based on which horses have the best chance of winning,” Moreira, who has ridden just one winner for Size from 24 rides this season, said. “So the reason I am riding so many of John’s horses today is that so many have great chances.”
Trust John Size and Joao Moreira to give you a slice of Sunday’s HK$11.5 million Triple Trio jackpot
Moreira, who has been booked for Size-trained pair Amazing Kids and Sun Jewellery in upcoming feature races, not only takes the ride on Group Three Sa Sa Ladies’ Purse fancy Eastern Express but also a talented young group of horses.
Love Shock, Premiere, Unicron Jewellery, Volitation, My Darling and Arizona Blizzard all look to have some ratings points in hand and could deliver a massive day for the Size-Moreira partnership.
The Brazilian jockey picked out My Darling as a standout as the 2017 BMW Hong Kong Derby hopeful resumes in a Class Two over 1,400m.