“I Often Wonder”: Joao Moreira’s ‘Sliding Doors’ Moment That Took Him To Hong Kong Instead Of America
This week’s Kentucky Derby meeting will be Moreira’s first time riding in the U.S. since he opted not to take up Wesley Ward’s offer to relocate there from Singapore.
JOAO MOREIRA hasn’t ridden much in the United States, in fact you’d have to look back about 12 years to the last time he contested a race in North America, but on Saturday the Brazilian ace will guide the Japanese raider Luxor Cafe in the biggest of them all, the G1 Kentucky Derby.
Yet Moreira could have unleashed his incredible talent full-time in the U.S. rather than Hong Kong where he gained global fame through his record-breaking achievements. It all came down to a ‘sliding doors’ moment in 2013 when the choice before him was to accept a tempting invitation from trainer Wesley Ward to relocate Stateside or make the shorter move from Singapore to Sha Tin and take up a contract with the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
“I had an invitation (from Wesley), but as we were talking and had a deal ready, I received a call from Steve Railton in Hong Kong and then phone calls from two trainers: John Moore and John Size,” Moreira told Idol Horse.
Railton was then the secretary to the HKJC’s Licensing Committee, the man responsible for recruiting jockeys; Moore and Size were Hong Kong’s powerhouse trainers, both champions, the former being the undisputed Group 1 king, the latter being a master at developing unraced stock into high-class achievers.
“I decided to go to Hong Kong,” Moreira continued, “because being based in Asia, and being better known in Asia, I thought that was going to be a better choice for my family and me. I do not regret going there instead of America – I cannot regret it – but I often do wonder, how could it have turned out if we had gone to America?
“It could have been better, or it could have been a disaster, but we can’t go back in time and now I am getting a chance to go back.”
Ward, who trains out of Kentucky and Florida, first noticed Moreira’s rare talent when his ‘world view’ approach to competition took his eyes to Singapore and that now-defunct jurisdiction’s once popular international races. Moreira was a superstar at Kranji racecourse, a rider so dominant that he smashed records and won the title four years straight: he had the last of those wrapped up even though he left for Hong Kong with more than two months of Singapore’s 2013 season remaining.
“I don’t know if it was or wasn’t the right decision, because at that time he was going to do great anywhere he went, whether that was Australia or England, or anywhere,” Ward said. “He was just a tremendously talented guy and whatever a horse would run on a daily basis, you put him on and they’d run faster, for whatever reason that is.
“I watched him early on from the races in Singapore, kind of just scanning and watching the races over there as I had a few horses I was thinking about running in those Singapore international races they had at the time. He caught my eye, the way he finished on a horse and the way he rode the races, he was certainly an exceptional talent.”
A mutual friend connected trainer and jockey and Moreira went to the U.S. for a short working visit in May 2013.
“I did go over there and during that time Wesley Ward was looking for a jockey, he said to me ‘Joao, you ride well, would you like to come over here and ride in America?’” Moreira recalled.
He initially rode three days at Arlington and Churchill Downs: seven rides including runner-up on Judy The Beauty in a Grade 3 at Churchill and a maiden victory on Princess Millie, who paid $53.20 for the win.
“The horse had some talent but being a longshot like that and winning … my horses are rarely longshots, I put horses in that I feel have good chances, sort of dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s, most of the horses I run are favourites,” Ward said.
“I don’t know who would have won on the horse but he did. They don’t call him the Magic Man for nothing: there’s probably a thousand stories like that about him all over the world.”
Moreira returned for another three days in early July of that year, bagging one win from 10 and second place in the G1 Princess Rooney Handicap at Calder, again on Judy The Beauty.
“He seems like a great guy, a family man, and I just thought it would be, at that point in his career and his life, a great time,” Ward added.
As the year progressed, Moreira felt certain it was the right time to leave Singapore, not least because of his dominance and the age he was: closing on 30 when Ward approached him.
“There was a day when I went to the races in Singapore and I won all the races I rode in,” Moreira said, recalling the second of the three times in his career he rode eight winners in a day.
“There were nine races, but one of them was for apprentices only, and I won every other race. But I could feel that some of the people that I was winning for were not happy. So, I thought, ‘when I don’t win some people aren’t happy, but when I do win people are not happy either. So, when will they be happy, when I start playing their games?’
“Nobody had come to me yet to ask them to pull horses up, I was committed to winning, but I knew it was time to leave.”
His relocation to Hong Kong brought four champion jockey titles, numerous Group 1 wins at Sha Tin, major triumphs in Japan, Australia, and Dubai, and associations with some of the world’s great trainers, the likes of Chris Waller and Luxor Cafe’s handler Noriyuki Hori, as well as Moore and Size.
Moreira rides out of his home town of Curitiba, Brazil, these days, taking up short contracts in Japan and Australia and fly-in-fly-out raids on major races in Hong Kong, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia. He has been in exceptional form riding a short-term licence in Japan through April, winning three of four Group 1 races in that time including the first two Japanese classics, and last weekend he rode four winners at Tokyo followed by two in Hong Kong. Now he is hoping Luxor Cafe can maintain his run of success into Churchill Downs’ most famous raceday.
“He has a chance and deserves some respect,” Moreira said of the American Pharoah colt who heads into the Derby off four wins on the bounce and follows in the wake of Japan’s Forever Young, an unlucky and close third in last year’s ‘Run for the Roses’.
“Japanese horses are doing so well around the world and I am getting on board a horse that has done everything to make me believe that he can compete well there.”
Moreira has no qualms about competing in an unfamiliar environment either.
“Racing in America is not as complicated as people want to make it,” he said. “Dirt racing is fast, but Brazil has dirt racing too, and though maybe it isn’t as fast as America, it is similar. I will say this, it is much easier to ride a good horse on the dirt. Try to ride a bad one on the dirt and you will struggle.
“American racing is fast, the kick back on the dirt is intense and not many horses can cope with it, so I cannot guarantee that Luxor Cafe will handle it. It’s worth giving it a crack though.
“The jockeys there are very strong, tactical, and aggressive, but that is no different than the jockeys I ride with in Brazil. Go to Rio. I honestly think that riding in Rio and Curitiba is harder. I am not saying the racing is better, but it is so much more difficult to ride under those conditions. The standard of racing is much lower (in Brazil) so everything is so much more difficult and complicated. I am not downgrading it but when the level is lower nothing happens easily.”
Ward has no doubt Moreira is equipped to ride America’s greatest race at Churchill Downs this weekend.
“He’s an exceptional jockey, he’s ridden everywhere in the world, he’s ridden big fields, which is what this is going to be,” Ward said. “He’s certainly very adaptable and I don’t think it will be an issue for him. It would be an issue for me if I was a jockey, and many others, but for him, he’s able to make quick, instant decisions, which is what you’ve got to make in the Kentucky Derby. I’d say that there wouldn’t be a better man for the job than him.”
Moreira will prepare for Luxor Cafe’s race like he does any important contest.
“When I get to Kentucky, I will do the job that good jockeys do,” he said. “I will walk the track, watch a lot of replays, do the form, and then come to the races prepared and hopefully get a good result.”
And he is thrilled to be riding in a race of such history and prestige as the Kentucky Derby, on what could be a huge weekend for him, given that he will ride Tyrion in the G1 Grande Premio Sao Paulo at Cidade Jardim the following day.
“How good is that? It will be a great experience and then I will get on a plane to ride in Sao Paulo in the afternoon. It is the biggest race in Sao Paulo and my horse is the hot favourite,” he said.
Moreira is already a well-known star of the sport in many parts of the world, but not so much in the States. A Kentucky Derby win would shine the North American spotlight on him for once and maybe more opportunities to ride there might arise all these years after his decision not to take up Ward’s invitation.
“I’d love it if he stayed or came back,” Ward added. “That would be great.” ∎
