What could be better than having two of our young riding talents winning top international jockey series within the space of a week? That's the wonderful news we've just had from the UK after Matthew Chadwick produced some sensational riding performances at Ascot Racecourse on Saturday to make a winning debut in the Shergar Cup, just seven days after our apprentice jockey Alvin Ng won the Asian Young Guns Challenge in Macau.
I would like to offer my warmest congratulations to Matthew for not only being part of the successful Rest of the World team, but also winning the Silver Saddle award as the leading individual rider in this year’s Shergar Cup. This once again demonstrates the world-class standards of Hong Kong racing, especially when you look at the star-studded line-up of international jockeys he was facing and consider that he had never before ridden on Ascot's challenging turf.
What was especially encouraging was that Matthew performed so consistently across the series, claiming a winner and three seconds from his five rides. This demands great versatility in a contest where the races cover a wide range of different distances and the horses are all unfamiliar, varying from front runners to strong finishers. But by all accounts he handled these different challenges, exceptionally well, showing great composure and maturity for a 22-year-old in all his rides.
Several other Club jockeys such as Douglas Whyte, Andreas Suborics, Weichong Marwing and Gerald Mosse have also participated in the Shergar Cup over the past few years, but Matthew is the first of our home-grown jockeys to be invited to take part in this event. It’s nice to see Matthew grab this valuable chance with both hands, joining Weichong and Gerald in the exclusive ranks of Silver Saddle winners.
Following his emphatic success, Matthew will stay and ride for one more week in the UK before returning to Hong Kong to prepare for the new season. Having sacrificed his summer break to ride in Britain, Matthew serves as a role model for our young apprentices, showing dedication, an eagerness to improve and a willingness to challenge himself. These elements have enabled him to compete successfully against world-class opposition.
His triumph also serves as a compliment to our training programmes of apprentice jockeys, as it demonstrates that our systematic approach to developing local riding talents is paying off. Quite a number of our young talents now have the credentials to compete at the international level.
The worldwide representation of jockeys in this event also shows how globalised the sport of racing has become. Given the high reputation of Hong Kong racing – which has now increased a further notch – I believe we will see more and more Hong Kong horses and jockeys participating in overseas races in the future.
There was also wide interest in the Shergar Cup from racing fans around the world, and many leading bookmakers were offering odds on the result – with Matthew, incidentally, starting off as a 14-1 outsider. I believe many of you were disappointed for not having a chance to watch Matthew's performance live and share his triumph, or channel the gaming demand to the regulated operator. With the restrictions on simulcast during the summer break, we are not able to offer service to meet customers’ gaming demands. No doubt it wasn’t an ideal situation and I really do hope related parties could heed our calls and the restrictions can be reviewed soon.
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