Yuen leads the way as locals dominate at Sha Tin

Hong Kong's homegrown jockeys won eight of the nine races at Sha Tin on Wednesday night as apprentice Nichola Yuen's treble tightened her grip on second place in the jockeys' championship.

Yuen won on Macanese Master, Yoda's Choice and Giant Leap for the second treble of her Hong Kong career and now has 16 wins from 91 rides this season.

"I'm very happy with all the opportunities I'm getting," she said. "I'm getting good rides and good support from a lot of trainers.”

Yuen offered special mention to her allocated trainer Ricky Yiu Poon-fai for whom six of her winners have been for, including the short head win by Giant Leap. 

“He teaches me a lot and hopefully we can have more wins," she said.

Homegrown riders now hold four of the top five places in the standings. Jerry Chau Chun-lok rode a double to sit third on 14 wins, ahead of Vincent Ho Chak-yiu on 12 and Derek Leung Ka-chun on 11, who won on Happy Universe to give Jimmy Ting Koon-ho his first winner of the season.

Keith Yeung Ming-lun won on 66-1 shot Speedy Trident and Britney Wong Po-ni on Happydearhappydeer. Brenton Avdulla on Bustling City was the only overseas jockey to win.

Nine-time champion Zac Purton missed the meeting through suspension but still leads the championship on 26 wins, 10 clear of Yuen.

Yuen, who now claims seven pounds, rode winners for three trainers: Yiu, Me Tsui and Pierre Ng.

Ng's win with Yoda's Choice, resuming from knee surgery, put him two clear of Caspar Fownes in the trainers' championship.

"He had two trials going into this race and we thought he wouldn't be 100 percent yet, but he was still fresh enough to hit the line first," Ng said.

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓