Joao Moreira Pockets ‘Golden Ticket’ With WASJ Victory

THE CELEBRATION said it all. It was an instant of raw relief and pure joy for Joao Moreira as he charged past the winning post standing high in the irons, fist clenched and pumped, his vocal cords roaring a throat-raking “Yes!” and a soaring “Woo.”

Moreira had just won the World All Star Jockeys (WASJ) title. He had conjured a powerful wisp of his trademark magic, delivering Ezo Daimon with a deep-closing surge to nick the fourth and final race. But this was about more than the WASJ, this was about securing a free pass to a short-term licence to ride on the JRA (Japan Racing Association) circuit again.

The competition is an annual affair pitting two teams of six riders against each other – the JRA versus the rest – while offering a ¥3 million cheque to the individual with the most points. This year, though, for Moreira especially, securing a top five finish to earn the right to apply for a short term JRA licence was the ‘golden ticket.’

Had the Brazilian failed to make the top five, that option would have been lost and Moreira would have been left struggling to meet the shifting JRA licensing criteria any time soon. His latest spell in Japan, earlier this year, brought victory in the G1 Oka Sho on Stellenbosch, but he needed two Group 1 wins during that spell, not one, to secure a return.

The JRA added the ‘top five finish’ bonus option a matter of weeks ago, and Moreira was delighted to have taken advantage.

“I was hoping I could just finish top four, or top three, if possible,” he told Idol Horse, having been in a slightly precarious fourth place heading into the final leg on the betting market’s third choice.

“(I knew) if I was (able) to have a good result in this competition I could probably have another go here in Japan in the future. Fortunately, we won the race … I couldn’t be any happier.”

The Magic Man secures his return ticket to Japan: #WASJ winner Joao Moreira talks through his thrilling win on Ezo Daimon and shows his love for Japanese racing and its fans, paying tribute to the incredible atmosphere at Sapporo.#競馬 #WASJ #モレイラ pic.twitter.com/tie95zOWnB

— Idol Horse (@idolhorsedotcom) August 25, 2024

This year’s WASJ began in a function room at the Keio Plaza Hotel, Sapporo, on Friday evening. The sharp-suited jockeys were presented to a handful of gathered officials and a few invited connections standing in scattered pockets around a prepared buffet, and to a pack of local and international press penned into a tight spot beyond reach behind a rope in the room’s back right corner.

The JRA riders were escorted out as a bloc for 48 hours of ‘jockey lockdown’ as soon as the introductions were finished, except for multiple and current champion Christophe Lemaire, the NAR (National Association of Racing) champion Tomohiro Yoshimura and the international riders who were taken to the press corner one by one for brief interviews.

All were ‘excited’ and ‘honoured’ to be invited and everyone said they would do their best in the polite but stage-managed manner that is always the way at such events wherever in the world they occur. It was a tepid contrast to the blood-pumping authentic drama that would unfold two days later.

The WASJ’s four races are spread two-by-two across two race days at Sapporo, a welcoming racecourse with a family-friendly picnic vibe, which is located on Hokkaido and open for only one month, through August, each year.

Karis Teetan, a late call-up for the injured Lisa Allpress, set things off in the first leg. The Mauritian was bagging his second win on the 12-race card when he flew home aboard Kvasir to mug Moreira, riding the race favourite Courteous Manner, right on the line.  

That left Hong Kong-based Teetan beaming and Moreira deflated, given that the Godolphin-owned runner was seen widely as the latter’s best winning chance among his four WASJ rides.

The second leg was worse for Moreira. While Lemaire took the spoils on Schwarze Kugel, the former Hong Kong champion was only eighth, leaving him to share fifth spot overnight with Damian Lane. But Moreira had finished an otherwise disappointing day on a high, winning the last race on the card with the 1.9 favourite Val D’Orcia, and that non-WASJ victory presaged a Sunday to remember.

Day two saw the mid-point leader Teetan drop out of contention, finishing sixth and fifth in legs three and four, but he had done enough to take the fifth spot overall, so earning a chance to apply for a short-term JRA licence, too, should he want to during the Hong Kong off-season next summer.

“You have to get the right horse and the right draw, that’s what these competitions are all about,” Teetan said. “I thought my best rides were on the first day, so I just hoped for the best. But I was brought in as a replacement so I’m delighted to come here and ride a double and make connections with the Japanese people.”

Japan’s greatest, Yutaka Take, completed a Sunday double when he took leg three on the 41.3 chance T Up Leon, much to the delight of his fans in the vocal crowd. He ultimately finished second in the WASJ, which was broken up by a high-class sideshow, the G3 Keeneland Cup.

That went to Melbourne’s champion jockey Lane, who delivered the G1 Sprinters Stakes-bound Satono Reve to win by a length and a half over the Moreira-ridden runner-up A Shin Spotter.

Meanwhile, another overseas raider to succeed outside the WASJ races was Hong Kong’s Vincent Ho. He suffered a crushing fall in Japan last summer that sidelined him for several weeks, but returned with an ‘undercard’ win on each day.

“Northern Farm supported me a lot, so I hope I delivered. At least I managed to get a winner for ‘the boss’ and I had a few placings too,” he said. “I’m just grateful to be here again and see all the fans.”

Moreira was the star of the show though, bagging a day two treble thanks to wins on the highly-touted newcomer Mikki Madonna – a daughter of the Classic-winning Mikki Queen – another filly Lei Pikake, and then the WASJ decider on Ezo Daimon, fittingly a three-parts-brother to Glory Vase on whom the jockey won the G1 Hong Kong Vase in 2019 and 2021.

He returned to applause, cheers, and individual shouts from the crowd of “Moreira. Moreira. Moreira,” and pleas for autograph signings, which he obliged after the racing was over.

“Horse racing fans here in Japan are amazing,” Moreira said. “What the people of Japan create, the nice atmosphere in the grandstand, they pass it on to us when we ride on the track, so I never keep it for myself. I always say this is a place that I love very much and then going home with the trophy from this championship is a pleasure.”  

With the trophy comes that option of a return ticket to Japan and that’s the WASJ reward Moreira and his fans wanted most of all.