The battle between Vincent Ho and Jerry Chau for a prized berth as Hong Kong, China\u2019s leading homegrown rider in next month\u2019s LONGINES International Jockeys\u2019 Championship (IJC) intensified at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (19 November) as the pair traded blows with doubles.<\/p>
Chau temporarily took the lead in the standings with a race-to-race double for David Eustace to claim the lead as the top eligible homegrown jockey ahead of the 10 December LONGINES IJC before 2023 LONGINES IJC champion Ho fired back with a brace of his own.<\/p>
With only two meetings left before the selection cut-off after the 26 November meeting at Happy Valley, Ho holds sway with 10 wins from Chau (nine) with Matthew Poon (seven), Matthew Chadwick (seven) and Derek Leung (six) all in contention.<\/p>
Ho teamed with Caspar Fownes to snare the Class 4 The Indian Recreation Club Challenge Cup Handicap (1000m) in brilliant fashion with Mr Desira (133lb) before guiding Frankie Lor\u2019s Glorious Journey (124lb) to victory in the first section of the Class 4 Caroline Hill Handicap (1650m).<\/p>
\u201cThe IJC is very important but after a long injury, it\u2019s hard to get the momentum and I\u2019m glad that Fownes is supporting me and a few other trainers but it\u2019s hard to get rides,\u201d Ho said. \u201cI\u2019m doing my best on every single horse to hopefully get in the IJC. It\u2019s a great privilege to ride in it and I\u2019ll just do my best.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”9069″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Chau and Eustace struck with Apolar Fighter (132lb) in the Class 5 Tai Hang Handicap (1650m) before scoring with Podium (123lb), whose victory in the Class 5 Hing Fat Handicap gave Eustace three wins from only five starters across the past two meetings.<\/p>
\u201cI need to thank David who has given me great support this season,\u201d Chau, 25, said. \u201cHe has been giving me quality rides and tonight, the horses have been running well.<\/p>
\u201c(Regarding the IJC), it\u2019s still too early to say but I will try my best because it\u2019s a very good opportunity for me. I\u2019m trying to get some good results early in the season and to have a chance to fight for a place in the IJC \u2013 I will try 200 percent and hopefully I will get in.\u201d<\/p>
With 10 riders already confirmed for the LONGINES IJC, competition for the final two positions will continue at Sha Tin at the glittering Bank of China (Hong Kong) Race Day this Sunday (23 November) before next Wednesday\u2019s fixture.<\/p>
Zac Purton qualifies for the LONGINES IJC as last season\u2019s Hong Kong champion jockey and will be joined by defending champion Mickael Barzalona, James McDonald, Christophe Lemaire, Umberto Rispoli, Hollie Doyle, Rachel King, Joao Moreira, William Buick and Ryan Moore (subject to fitness).<\/p>
With 37 wins, Purton is forging towards a ninth Hong Kong jockeys\u2019 championship but much interest now centres on who will fill both the leading homegrown rider\u2019s position and also that of the second-placed jockey in the 2025\/26 standings.<\/p>
Luke Ferraris (15 wins) currently sits second behind Purton but ahead of Hugh Bowman (13), Alexis Badel (12), Karis Teetan (11) and Lyle Hewitson (10), who scored on David Hayes-trained Samarkand in the second section of the Class 4 Caroline Hill Handicap (1650m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”9070″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Hayes and Harry Bentley sealed doubles with Romantic Son\u2019s success in the Class 3 Cotton Handicap (1200m) as Hayes cemented second place in the trainers\u2019 championship with 18 wins behind Mark Newnham (22).<\/p>
\u201cThrilled to have a double \u2013 it keeps me in touch with the lead. I think they\u2019re two horses to follow and I\u2019m very happy,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>
Bentley also combined with Danny Shum and Win Method (117lb) to land the second section of the Class 4 So Kon Po Handicap (1200m) before Lakeshore Hero (118lb) made a triumphant return to racing after recovering from a heart irregularity to win the first section of the Class 4 So Kon Po Handicap (1200m) for David Hall and Andrea Atzeni at his first start since July.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s coming off a heart irregularity and he\u2019s not been an easy horse to work with, he\u2019s been quite timid amongst horses and wants to over-race and do a few things wrong,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>
\u201cThe owner has had to be patient \u2013 he\u2019s had a long break and reset. His trials have been good coming back and obviously the race now tells you that the horse has got more confidence to handle it the way he did today.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cWe brought him here to try and get some speed for him so he would relax, and then it was about how confident he would be amongst the other horses. To his credit he took the run and went up the inside and finished off.\u201d<\/p>
Atzeni closed the meeting with victory on Newnham\u2019s Hong Kong International Sale graduate Super Unicorn (119lb) in the Class 3 Causeway Bay Handicap (1650m).<\/p>
Hong Kong racing continues at Sha Tin on Sunday (23 November) with Bank of China (Hong Kong) Race Day.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”9068″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The battle between Vincent Ho and Jerry Chau for a prized berth as Hong Kong, China\u2019s leading homegrown rider in next month\u2019s LONGINES International Jockeys\u2019 Championship (IJC) intensified at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (19 November) as the pair traded blows with doubles.Chau temporarily took the lead in the standings with… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":9071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9067"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9067"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9185,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9067\/revisions\/9185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}