Darren Beadman, 43, was a teenage prodigy in Sydney where he learned his trade under the guidance of legendary 'jockey maker' Theo Green at Royal Randwick. Beadman finished second on his first ride but soon corrected that and was a Group One winner on two continents while still an apprentice, winning the world's richest two-year-old race, the Golden Slipper, at the age of 17 and landing the Prix Morny in France during a brief stint there. He has gone on to become one of Australia's all-time great riders. The winner of almost 90 Group One events, including two Melbourne Cups and two Hong Kong international events, won seven championships while based in Sydney and was the youngest rider inducted into Australia's Hall Of Fame last year. He has made Hong Kong his full-time base now for more than a year under retainer from the John Moore stable and, while he will have rides in the other big events on December 14, his partnership with hometown idol Viva Pataca as he strives for that elusive Hong Kong Cup win this year is going to be one of the focal points of the big day.
Olivier Doleuze
Fabulous Frenchman Doleuze, 36, (below, right) is the son of jockey-turned-trainer Georges Doleuze, and undertook his apprenticeship with leading French stable of Criquette Head-Maarek. Olivier was the champion apprentice of his home country and was soon offered a retainership by prominent owners the Wertheimer brothers, after completing his time as a junior. In that role, Doleuze continued to do his riding in France for Head-Maarek and won classics on the fillies Green Tune and Egyptband for the Wertheimers as well as the 2001 Singapore Krisflyer Sprint on Iron Mask. His win tally in Hong Kong is now fast approaching 300 and he enjoyed a stellar 2007-08 season when he partnered with outstanding miler Good Ba Ba and they swept the feature mile races on the calendar in a streak of five straight major victories at the Sha Tin 1,600m - a feat never before performed. Good Ba Ba gave Doleuze his second successive Hong Kong Mile last year after he won on The Duke a year before. Doleuze is one of the most popular jockeys with the crowds, famed far and wide for his exuberant winning celebrations and often standing high in stirrups as he passes the post to encourage a roaring, adoring public.
Brett Prebble, 31, (above) did his apprenticeship under John Meagher in Melbourne, winning the junior championship twice in the 1990s before graduating successfully to the senior ranks in that city, where he also won the open title twice, adding several Group One wins around Australia including the Sydney Cup. Prebble's breakthrough after his move to Hong Kong came with a late engagement to ride Precision in the Champions & Chater Cup of 2003, giving the jockey his biggest win and setting him on the path to becoming one of the dominant riders based at Sha Tin. Nearing 300 wins in Hong Kong, Prebble has yet to unseat Douglas Whyte from the jockeys throne but has finished second for the past three terms and endured his toughest test in an epic 2007 struggle when the pair see-sawed for the lead for much of the season before Whyte won out. Prebble's big wins include the 2007 Derby, the Champions Mile and Yasuda Kinen on Bullish Luck and the Hong Kong Sprint on the world's top-ranked sprinter of 2006, Absolute Champion. His strongest chance this year looks to be in that race again with Sunny Power.
Douglas Whyte
Durban-born Whyte, 37, (below, left) has made the Hong Kong jockeys championship his property, winning eight in succession since his first victory in the 2000-01 season. A product of the South African apprentices academy system, Whyte enjoyed success during a brief visit to Sha Tin in late 1996, then returned in April 1997 to give South Africa its first foreign Group One success with London News in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup in April the following year. Invited to stay on and complete the season, Whyte has never left and has broken almost every riding record in Hong Kong. He passed local legend Tony Cruz's career total of 946 Hong Kong race wins last year and, on international day last year, Whyte won on appropriately named High Point to make him the first jockey to rack up 1,000 wins here. Famed for his homework to assess form and get himself aboard coming winners, he holds the record for wins in a season at 114 and regularly wins the championship with a tally almost double that of his nearest rival. Nine times a Group One winner in Hong Kong, he won the 1998 Hong Kong Vase on Indigenous and will be hoping that Armada or Enthused can add to his international record this year.