The Jockey Club has had a strong response to the new retainership ideas, though not necessarily from the partnerships one might have anticipated as obvious.
On May 4, the club will announce how many retained jockeys will be licensed during the 2004-2005 season and then sit back and work out which club jockeys will come to fill the gaps and when. The announcement of the new jockeys for the first part of the new season will thus be declared in late May, much later than in past years.
It is believed the Racing Committee has already discussed the rules which will cover club jockeys in the new term - including any restrictions on daily ride bookings which could displace the 'de facto retained jockeys'. Those conditions have yet to be made public but will doubtless have a strong bearing on the situations of some of Hong Kong's leading riders next season. May 4 will also be the date on which the club names the trainer to replace the retiring Geoff Lane, the only vacancy certain to be available.
