These two are definitely the jockeys for special occasions.
Pierre-Charles Boudot and Mickaël Barzalona have covered no less than 9,620 km to reach Hong Kong, where the International Jockeys Championship takes place on Wednesday at the Happy Valley racecourse.
After 12 hours on the plane and having previously carried out several Covid screening tests, the pilots were placed in quarantine.
Since the start of their stay in the former British colony, they have been placed under medical surveillance with their temperature checked twice a day.
And in the locker rooms, local and foreign athletes will be kept away from each other.
A very profitable trip
Despite this extremely rigorous protocol, in a context where the epidemic is resisting, the game is certainly worth the candle.
Five days later, on December 13, sixteen kilometers away, during Sha Tin's prestigious meeting, the two crack jockeys will be in great demand.
In particular Mickaël Barzalona, who will take part in eight of the nine races on the program.
The future French Golden Cravache will be in the saddle five times.
Before the big Sunday meeting, the French pilots were therefore invited to take part in the very elitist meeting on Wednesday, in which they will try to join Christophe Lemaire, the last tricolor winner in 2009. This year, the Hongkong Jockey Club (HKJC ) increased the allowances paid to the winners by 20%.
At the end of this tournament, played over four rounds, the winner will pocket more than € 54,000 (HK $ 500,000).
Heavy on the track
It's a cast of stars.
The two French nationals will face a very solid British team, made up of Ryan Moore, William Buick, but also rising star Hollie Doyle and his companion Tom Marquand.
From France, the riders will be able to bet, in common mass with Asia, on the four races of the championship.
The events associated with the international jockeys meeting are the fourth, which will be broadcast on Equidia, the following (C5, C7 and C8) will be visible on Equidia Racing 2, as will the entire meeting which will start at 11:30 am.
Alexis Badel in the Hong Kong team
His heart will beat for France.
"I try to highlight the made in France", confides the jockey who left this summer for Hong Kong.
As a Frenchman holding an annual Hong Kong license, he will defend the chances of the HKJC.
"Big surprise," he rejoices.
To reach the number of twelve participants, the organizer has increased the number of local jockeys to alleviate the disaffection of Australians, due to the pandemic.
A godsend for the "Frenchy", ranked fifth best jockey in his host country.
Suddenly, Alexis Badel joined Zac Burton, Joao Moreira, Karis Teetan, the defending champion, Vincent Ho and Neil Callan in the team which will defend the Hong Kong banner.
