The 34 year old ‘Magic Man’ Joao Moreira will quit Hong Kong racing at season’s end to go to Japan and prepare for the rigorous tests required to become the Japan Racing Association’s third full-time foreign rider.
Magic Joao Moreira
The South China Morning Post reports that with the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s licensing committee scheduled to meet on Friday, Moreira has withdrawn his application to ride in the 2018-19 season in a move that will shock the racing world.
Moreira will apply for a short term Japan Racing Association (JRA) licence, just as he has in the past two off-seasons.
He will spend his spare time preparing for a written test, the first hurdle to joining Italian Mirco Demuro and Christophe Lemaire as full-time foreign riders in Japan.
Moreira rode in the 2012 International Jockeys Challenge in South Africa.
