Joao Moreira will fly to France in August to ride Japanese raider Strauss in the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville, continuing a partnership that has already taken the pair from Tokyo to Australia, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong.
Strauss is set to tackle the straight 1600-metre feature on August 16, giving Japan another chance to revisit one of its most significant overseas stages. Deauville was where Taiki Shuttle won the Jacques le Marois in 1998, a week after Seeking The Pearl had become Japan’s first overseas Group 1 winner in the Prix Maurice de Gheest.
Moreira, who is currently in Hong Kong as Caspar Fownes’ retained rider, told Idol Horse he is looking forward to renewing his association with Strauss on the world stage.
“It’s always an honour and a privilege to help represent Japan on the world stage,” Moreira said.
“He can be a difficult horse to ride, he pulls very hard, but he has proven himself to be a nice horse by running some really nice races in Japan and overseas.
“I am hoping he can put on a good performance once again.”
Moreira knows Strauss as well as any jockey. He rode the son of Maurice to his first Group win as a two-year-old in the G2 Tokyo Sports Hai Nisai Stakes over 1800 metres at Tokyo in November 2023, when the colt looked a possible top-level talent in the making.
Since then, Strauss has been a difficult horse to place. His best distance has often looked somewhere between sprinting and a mile, and his racing manners have not always made things easy for connections.
Moreira has ridden Strauss in his past three starts. The pair finished sixth in the AU$3 million Russell Balding Stakes over 1300 metres at Randwick in November before stretching successfully to a mile in Abu Dhabi, where Strauss won the inaugural US$1 million Abu Dhabi Gold Cup on February 7.
That performance suggested a top tier mile might not be beyond him, but Strauss was unable to back it up at Sha Tin in April, finishing 12th in the G1 Champions Mile.
The Jacques le Marois will provide a different test again. Run on Deauville’s straight mile, the race has long been one of Europe’s defining summer contests for milers. It is also a race with deep Japanese resonance, even if Japanese participation has been sporadic since Taiki Shuttle’s breakthrough 28 years ago.
Bathrat Leon was seventh in the 2022 Prix Jacques le Marois for Yoshito Yahagi, the first Japanese-trained runner in the race for 19 years at the time. Go To First continued the recent Japanese presence when fifth in last year’s edition, and France-Galop listed four Japanese-trained entries for the 2026 renewal: Embroidery, Sixpence, Go To First and Strauss.
For Moreira, the booking adds another international assignment to a year that has already become a successful late Hong Kong cameo.
The Brazilian returned to Hong Kong in April to ride as Fownes’ retained jockey and has quickly become a key part of the trainer’s championship push. With the season entering its final stretch, Fownes is chasing a fifth Hong Kong trainers’ title, while Moreira has ridden 27 winners from just 161 rides and has been in particularly strong form in recent weeks.
The Hong Kong season culminates with a Season Finale at Happy Valley on July 15, after which Moreira will return to Brazil before flying on to Deauville, where he will again link up with the racing nation that has played such a major role in his international career. ∎
