CHAMPION jockey Chris Munce has been stood down from riding after Hong Kong Jockey Club stewards yesterday stunned the Melbourne Cup winner with a disqualification that threatens his career.

Munce must now rely on Racing NSW reissuing him a licence to ride when he fronts a show-cause hearing later this week, with the ruling body having the power to override the Hong Kong penalty.

Munce was issued a backdated 30-month disqualification until September 1 next year from racecourses worldwide after he pleaded guilty to 36 charges arising from the "tips for bets" affair. Most of the charges related to tipping for financial gain.

The 39-year-old, who won the 1998 Melbourne Cup on Jezabeel, has already served a 20-month jail sentence after being prosecuted by the Hong Kong ICAC following a surveillance operation that found him to be tipping horses when he was riding there in 2005 and 2006.

"I am extremely disappointed and shocked by today's developments," Munce told Fairfax Media last night. "I have already served a 20-month jail term over this. One would have thought that was more than enough. That wasn't 20 or 30 months when I couldn't step foot on a racecourse. It was a period behind bars, shut out of a normal life."

Munce said he had been "up front and honest" with the HKJC inquiry from its outset. "I've obeyed every directive they've put to me," he said.

"Obviously, I was hoping this inquiry would be the end of things and I would be able to ride again now, but this is now another hurdle to overcome. If I am out for another nine months and can't return until September next year, then that would be a career-threatening blow.

"As things are now, I am fit and keen to start up again. I've been riding trackwork and in trials and can't wait to get back into race riding."

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'Landys said Munce would be afforded every opportunity to show cause as to "why he should be able to be licensed to ride in NSW", despite the HKJC ruling.