Derek Leung Ka-chun called it "a real war" when he spoke to The Standard this week about the fight among Hong Kong's homegrown jockeys for the local place in the LONGINES International Jockeys' Championship and for the Tony Cruz Award given to the leading ‘homegrown’ rider at season’s end.
Leung meant it as a genuine compliment. Behind Zac Purton's 26 winners, Nichola Yuen Hang-yiu, Jerry Chau Chun-lok, Vincent Ho Chak-yiu and Leung hold the next four places on the jockeys' table.
Second place on that table belonged to Hugh Bowman in each of the past two seasons, but a hip injury has kept him out of the saddle since the opening day, and his line still reads one winner from seven rides. The locals have moved straight into the space he left. At Wednesday night's all-weather meeting at Sha Tin local riders won eight of the nine races. Purton was serving a suspension, which takes some shine off the scoreline, but statistics from the first two months of racing tell a strong story.
Yuen’s 16 winners from 91 rides is better than one in six, and 10 of them have come for stables other than her master’s. She has kept winning since the 10-pound claim ran out in late September.
Yuen's treble on Wednesday, her second of the season, took the 26-year-old apprentice to 16 winners from 91 rides and brought a record into play that looked safe five years ago. Chau rode 58 winners as an apprentice in 2020-21, 15 more than the record of 43 Matthew Chadwick set in 2008-09. Yuen needs 43 more to pass him. Six of her 16 winners have come for her master, Ricky Yiu Poon-fai, who promised in March to bring her along slowly but surely. That progress seems to have accelerated.
Any comparison between apprentices needs a caveat. Some start midway through a season, and every winner in those first months comes off the 10-pound claim before it has had a full campaign to work. Yuen debuted on April 1 and rode 14 winners before the season closed, which left her six short of 20 when this term began. The 10 pounds was gone by late September. Chau's late start cost him less. He debuted on May 9, 2020, rode seven winners from 95 rides in the closing weeks and carried the full claim into his record season. Yuen is chasing him but needs to do much of it on a seven-pound claim.
Britney Wong Po-ni ended a winless run of almost two months on Happydearhappydeer for Tony Cruz on Wednesday and admitted two months "feels like forever." She and Yuen are a credit to the Jockey Club's apprentice school under Amy Chan Lim-chee and the overseas placements Felix Coetzee helps steer, the same system that produced Chau, Ho and Leung. Both speak well and stay positive, and most importantly they are competitive.
Ho became the first homegrown rider to win the IJC in 2023 and edged Chau for the local place last year. Chau answered by winning the Tony Cruz Award and is still waiting for his first IJC ride. Yuen leads the Tony Cruz race this time.
Leung's war will be settled on November 25, when the standings after the Happy Valley meeting decide the last two places in the IJC. Purton is assured of his spot as last season's champion, and he will be joined by the next highest-ranked rider in the standings and the leading homegrown jockey. Yuen cannot take part, because riders still indentured to a trainer and claiming an allowance are ineligible. On current numbers that puts Chau and Ho in and leaves Leung one win short, and Ellis Wong Chi-wang sits three further back on eight.
As things stand, two local riders could line up at Happy Valley on December 9 against Moore, McDonald, Moreira, Lemaire and the rest of a nine-strong international field. Given the way the locals have ridden so far this season, that seems entirely fair.
