Champion South African jockey Jeff Lloyd is quitting Hong Kong to continue his riding career in Queensland from next month.
Lloyd, 50, will ride for the last time in Hong Kong on Derby day on March 18.
Lloyd, who has won more than 4500 races during his stellar career, will be based on the Gold Coast but will do the bulk of his riding in the Brisbane metropolitan area.
His new Australian manager will be Melissa Shield.
“Jeff gets back in Australia on March 20 but he won’t have his first ride here until March 31,” Shield said.
Lloyd will live at Hope Island, just north of the Gold Coast, with wife Nicola and their three children.
“Jeff is a real family man and when he was last in Australia he bought a home on Hope Island,” Shield said.
“He’ll be concentrating on Brisbane races and he wants to target the Brisbane jockeys’ premiership.”
Lloyd, who is currently 13th with 13 winners in the Hong Kong jockeys’ premiership, also plans to ride at all the major carnivals in Australia.
During his career Lloyd has won 90 Group One races and more than 200 Group Two and Group Three races.
He is the winner of six South African jockeys’ premierships as well five in Mauritius.
Lloyd, who has won Group One races in South Africa, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, has also ridden seven winners at a meeting on three occasions.
He finished in the top 10 in his only two full seasons riding in Hong Kong and fourth in his only full season in Sydney.
The widely-travelled Lloyd has also ridden in nine countries during his career – Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England, Germany and Mauritius.