The FWD Champions Day meeting thrust Hong Kong racing onto international sport’s biggest stage last weekend, drawing into sharp focus the excellence and performance of our most important asset – our people.
While acknowledging the feats of the Club’s highly-valued expatriate jockeys and trainers, the achievements of Vincent Ho at the elite level underlines the long-term importance of appropriate developmental programs.
The creation of the Club’s Apprentice Jockeys’ School (AJS) for home-grown talent in 1972 bore immediate fruit with the emergence of Tony Cruz, who advanced to international stardom as a jockey with performances that remain a benchmark for Hong Kong riders. Tony is now, of course, a successful trainer.
Determined to take an even more holistic approach to harness Hong Kong talent, the Club embarked on an ambitious revamp of its developmental program in 2005 with the establishment of the Racing Development Board (RDB), with an expanded curriculum to help our apprentices not only become top-class athletes with knowledge of all aspects of nutrition, training and fitness but also to enhance their personality and values.
In my opinion, few jockeys in Hong Kong take fitness and nutrition as seriously as Vincent with his training regimes and also discipline around diet. It is no accident his hard work and hunger to succeed are delivering fantastic results. He has shown again that Hong Kong jockeys can make to the top of the sport globally.
The establishment of the RDB represented the Club’s commitment to developing new generations of local talent for the entire industry, be it the nurturing of jockeys who could eventually compete with overseas riders, while also providing aspiring track riders, horse handlers and farriers with career paths.
After 16 years, with the success of people such as Vincent, Derek Leung and Matthew Chadwick, it is clear we are on the right track with the RDB and an ambitious new generation, including Jerry Chau, is rising quickly.
A crucial part of the new curriculum was the introduction of a Dual Education System, which involved integrating school-based learning with work-based practice, ensuring trainees received a well-rounded education featuring different skill sets relating to their job roles and academic subjects. More than 1200 racing staff have completed the specialist course over the past 14 years.
The Club remains committed to supporting our young jockeys in overseas stints to improve their skills. Following in the footsteps of Vincent, Derek and Matthew and many others, we are currently supporting Scarlet So, Peter Lui, Angus Chung and Ellis Wong in Australia while they gain important experience in race riding and trackwork.
Scarlet has done very well so far with almost 50 winners in Tasmania and South Australia, often on tracks far different to what she might have expected. Angus Chung has won the Streaky Bay Cup on a dirt track in South Australia as well as the Outback Cup in Broken Hill in regional New South Wales.
All of these experiences lay the basic foundations will hopefully allow all of them to one day be able to ride competitively in Hong Kong and, more than anything else, this grounding of competing in up to 400-500 races in Australia in often testing conditions means our apprentices come back as safer riders.
There are also the equally valuable life experiences that these young riders gain through living with host trainers and their families, travelling great distances and working in stables, cleaning out boxes and feeding and rugging horses.
As an AJS graduate, Alex Lai won the 2010 G1 Sprinters Stakes in Japan for Ricky Yiu, making the pair the first all-Chinese jockey-trainer partnership to win a G1 overseas.
Matthew Poon made his name in Australia and is an example of an RDB graduate taking his chances abroad and then building his career at home. Along with Vincent, Derek, Matthew Chadwick and Keith Yeung, Matthew has won at Group level.
We are proud that Vincent currently spearheads an impressive array of world-class operators to emerge from the program – and Yohito Yahagi’s decision to select him as the rider of Loves Only You in the QEII Cup showed immense trust on behalf of the highly-respected Japanese trainer. Vincent duly repaid that faith with a wonderful winning ride last Sunday.
Vincent’s achievements at our two biggest international meetings – FWD Champions Day and the LONGINES HKIR in December – demonstrate that he belongs among the elite with a total of seven winners, including three G1, across those meetings.
The RDB, of course, is not just about jockeys. It is a diverse program which caters to the ambitions of talented locals with aspirations in many areas and the Club is delighted that Paul Lo, Kyle Lai, Nicola Chan and Shenny Chan have become assistant trainers, while Tracy Lung and Petrina Law are also among the program’s graduates as equestrian instructors.
With Felix Coetzee (Chief Riding Instructor) adding the polish to our riding ranks and Amy Chan (AJS Headmistress) overseeing the RDB program, there is much to be optimistic about.
The G1 2000 Guineas Stakes over a mile (10:40 pm) is the featured race on our eight-race Saturday simulcast night from Newmarket. Trainer Aidan O’Brien has three runners in the 15-horse field, all with chances – Battleground (Frankie Dettori), Van Gogh (Seamie Heffernan) and Wembley (Ryan Moore). His son Joseph O’Brien will saddle an interesting runner in Thunder Moon (Declan McDonogh). Chindit (Pat Dobbs), Lucky Vega (Shane Foley) and Master Of The Seas (William Buick) are also prime contenders.
Wembley is my win and place choice as he moves up in trip for his first race of the new season. He looks to be another in the long line of good horses from Galileo that will appreciate the added distance but needs to jump on terms with the field. Thunder Moon, Battleground and Master Of The Seas are all place chances.
At Sha Tin on Sunday, the G3 Queen Mother Memorial Cup Handicap over 2400 metres brings together a diverse field of 12 and is carded as the seventh of 11 races with the first race at 12:30 pm. The field size is in sharp contrast to last season when it featured only five runners. This should bode well for the G1 Standard Chatered Champions & Chater Cup on 23 May.
Sunday’s field includes six four-year-olds, including Russian Emperor and Panfield, the two horses that finished second and third in this year’s BMW Hong Kong Derby, as well as Columbus County, third behind Mogul in this season’s Group 1 Longines Hong Kong Vase, and last-start winners Charity Fun and Savaquin.
The Cup for this race is absolutely magnificent and dates to 1856 when Queen Victoria presented it to the winner of the Ascot Gold Vase. It was later discovered in a silver vault in London by the late Mr Simon Li, an Honorary Steward of the Club.
Reliable Team (Derek Leung) will be the clear leader and will control the tempo with Butterfield (Matthew Poon) and Helene Leadingstar (Harry Bentley) taking up a forward position. The pace will be moderate. Russian Emperor (Karis Teetan) and Panfield (Joao Moreira) will be better than midfield.
Panfield overcame a wide draw in the Derby to finish a closing third in the Derby. This time with a better draw and three pounds lighter at the weights than Derby runner-up Russian Emperor, he is my win and place chance. He should be much closer to the pace and is well equipped to get the distance.
Russian Emperor is another horse that is bred to get the trip and he has trialled well following his strong showing in the Derby last month. Previously as a three-year-old he finished seventh in the Epsom Derby over 2405 metres. He is a place chance.
Columbus County has been working well and has Zac Purton on board. Butterfield will be in close contention from the outset and is also a place chance in his first attempt at the distance. He was a Group 1 winner over this trip in Brazil before coming to Hong Kong and has found some good form over the past two months.
As an improving horse, Charity Fun will enjoy the extra distance and will be ridden by the in-form jockey Alexis Badel and has to carry only 113 pounds, which makes him a place chance.
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