Brett Prebble has had a racing year to remember with many big wins, but he came up short in his biggest race - to win his first Hong Kong jockeys' premiership. He finished second, 100-99, to the champion Douglas Whyte, also missing his other goal of riding 100 winners.

Prebble won three Group 1 races on Sacred Kingdom, Hong Kong's racehorse of the year for the season that ended on July 14. He became the first jockey to ride six winners at a Hong Kong meeting. He flew to Sydney and won the Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes on Victorian filly Crystal Lily. And his mounts earned more than $HK82 million (about $A12million), for which he pockets more than $A1million, as he had his most productive Hong Kong season.

But the Victorian, poised to unseat perennial champ Whyte after a six-win haul on June 20 put him nine wins clear of the South African with six meetings left, faltered late.