The recruitment, development and retention of the best available talent is integral to Hong Kong racing’s world-class quality and these elements are reflected in the Club’s Licensing Committee’s decisions for the 2024/25 season.
A total of 22 jockeys from a string of major racing jurisdictions including France, Great Britain, Australia, South Africa and Hong Kong has been licensed for next season, along with 21 trainers including no fewer than seven winners of the Hong Kong trainers’ championship – John Size, Caspar Fownes, Tony Cruz, David Hayes, Frankie Lor, Dennis Yip and Ricky Yiu – as well as incoming trainer David Eustace.
Based on the current status of the 2023/24 Hong Kong trainers’ championship, it is very likely there will be an eighth champion trainer in our midst next season with Pierre Ng (61 wins) and Francis Lui (60) locked in a gripping battle for the title with only 10 meetings remaining in the season.
The talent pool in the jockeys’ ranks – which contains six-time champion Zac Purton, Karis Teetan, Hugh Bowman, Andrea Atzeni, Angus Chung, Alexis Badel, Lyle Hewitson, Harry Bentley, Brenton Avdulla and Vincent Ho, among others – is certainly very impressive.
Some of these established jockeys have had a profound effect on the development on the best Hong Kong talents including Angus, Derek Leung, Jerry Chau, Ellis Wong, Matthew Chadwick and Keith Yeung, among others, who have also benefited from the Club’s comprehensive training programmes under Amy Chan and Felix Coetzee at the Racing Talent Training Centre.
Similarly, the influential roles played by John Size, Tony Cruz and Francis Lui in the development of Hong Kong horsemen into top-class trainers has been vital to Hong Kong racing’s enduring quality.
While there is still much to play for across the next five weeks until the end of the current season, I wish all of our participants the very best for 2024-25.
At Sha Tin today, we celebrate the Hong Kong Riding for the Disabled Association Cup Race Day. The Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) was founded in 1975 by Lady MacLehose, wife of Sir Murray MacLehose, a former Governor of Hong Kong. RDA is the only charity offering therapeutic horse-riding lessons at no charge to the disabled community in Hong Kong.
The RDA touches the lives of more than 650 riders through over 4,500 rides each year. The Club is proud to support RDA, which relies on the generosity of the general public to sustain its operations.
The feature race at Sha Tin today is the Class 2 Lung Mun Road Handicap, which is carded as race 7 and will be run over 1200m at 7.05pm. The pace will be good with NERVOUS WITNESS going forward from the outside gate to lead with WHIZZ KID, who has drawn gate four, settling on the speed. COPARTNER PRANCE will also be in the leading group, with GORGEOUS WIN and TOMODACHI KOKOROE also prominent.
COPARTNER PRANCE has emerged as an exciting sprinting talent, winning his last four starts for Francis Lui and Zac Purton. Those wins have all come at Happy Valley and COPARTNER PRANCE returns to Sha Tin and rises in class. He has drawn a little awkwardly in gate eight, but if Zac can get him into a good spot in running, just off a strong tempo, COPARTNER CHANCE is a place selection.
GORGEOUS WIN had won three starts this season before being trapped three-wide and having a tough run when third to KA YING RISING and PACKING TREADMILL over this course and distance on 5 May. GORGEOUS WIN is a talented three-year-old who will continue to improve and he is a win and place chance for Alexis Badel.
NERVOUS WITNESS, who has barrier nine, is a place chance for Lyle Hewitson.
There are a number of other chances in the race, including TOMODACHI KOKOROE and WHIZZ KID who ensure this is a genuine sprint contest where horses stalking the pace will be closing quickly at the finish.
Our World Pool service continues tonight with the G1 Gold Challenge from Greyville Racecourse from Durban in South Africa. Carded as S1-1, the Gold Challenge will be run over 1600m at 9.20pm.
The speed will be good to moderate with DAVE THE KING likely to lead from ITSRAININGWILLIAM and SNOW PILOT.
Three-year-old MAIN DEFENDER has an excellent record with seven wins from nine starts. He got further back than usual last start when he came from worse than midfield to race away from DAVE THE KING to impressively win the Group 1 Horse Chestnut Stakes (1600m) on 2 March. That was MAIN DEFENDER’s first run against older horses and indicated he will be hard to beat in this race. MAIN DEFENDER is a win and place chance for Calvin Habib.
SANDRINGHAM SUMMIT is another well performed three-year-old who has finished in the top three in all 11 starts. He suffered a shock defeat over this course and distance last start but is a class colt, has drawn well and is a win and place chance for Gavin Lerena.
LUCKY LAD is another Group 1-winning three-year-old who showed amazing closing speed to win the Golden Horse Sprint (1200m) at Scottsville on 1 June. LUCKY LAD steps up quickly to the 1600m but is a place chance for Richard Fourie.
SEE IT AGAIN comes into the race fresh, having been fourth in the Cape Met (2000m) in January and is a place chance and ROYAL AUSSIE has won his last two starts leading to this race and can also run well.
AL MUTHANA will be at long odds but he won this race in 2022 and in last year’s renewal was runner-up to star miler CHARLES DICKENS and may run better than his recent form suggests.
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