Richard Fourie is giving up his plum job as stable jockey to Justin Snaith to leave for Hong Kong on August 22.

This will be the second Hong Kong stint for Fourie,29, who was much in demand there in the 2012/13 season when he rode 34 winners and only two other jockeys had more rides.

Fourie said yesterday: “They (the Hong Kong Jockey Club) have asked me to go back every season since and if I keep saying no they will eventually stop asking me.

“Anyway I’m only giving up here for a little while. I will be back in a season or two but it will be good experience and a nice opportunity. Things have changed since I was last there. Dougie Whyte is no longer number one and Joao Moreira has beaten all his records.”

Fourie decided not stay on in 2013, partly because his two young daughters found life there a strain but he said: “They are older now and Hong Kong should be a lot easier on the family this time.”

He has done well since his return, notably winning last year’s Vodacom Durban July on Legislate – “I have a special bond with that horse”- and he might well now be one of the contenders for the championship had it not been for that horrific Rising Sun Gold Challenge fall that caused him to miss much of the early part of the season.

By Michael Clower

Picture: Richard Fourie (Nkosi Hlophe)