Kiwi superstar James McDonald headlines a quartet of jockeys to be granted short-term licences to ride in Hong Kong this season.

Two-time Longines World’s Best Jockey award winner McDonald will return for another mid-season stint in the city, riding from November 12 to December 23, while Britain’s Hollie Doyle will join him from November 5 to December 23.

Champion French jockey Maxime Guyon will add to Hong Kong’s world-class riding ranks after being granted a licence from November 30 to March 1 and Irishman Dylan Browne McMonagle will make his Hong Kong debut when he rides from January 1 to March 29.

McDonald’s latest winter stint sets up a potential showdown between three of the world’s best riders – McDonald, eight-time Hong Kong champion Zac Purton and Brazilian star Joao Moreira, who will return to Hong Kong if the Jockey Club approves his pending application to ride as Caspar Fownes’ stable jockey from October to December.

Doyle, one of the world’s top female jockeys, has taken up short-term contracts in Japan in the past three winters but opted to instead ride in Hong Kong.

Guyon, a four-time champion flat jockey in France, will ride in the city for the first time since his Group One Hong Kong Vase (2,400m) triumph on Junko in 2023.

Browne McMonagle is the youngest addition to the riding roster at just 22. He was Ireland’s champion apprentice in 2021, currently leads his home country’s championship and is fresh from his fifth career Group One success after booting home Al Riffa in the Irish St Leger last weekend.