Matthew Chadwick joined his former master, Tony Cruz, and his current rival, Vincent Ho Chak-yiu, as the only home-grown jockeys to ride 500 Hong Kong winners when he partnered Power Koepp to win the Class Three Sauternes Cup (1,200) at Happy Valley on Wednesday night.
Chadwick, the 2008-09 champion apprentice rider when indentured to Cruz and last season’s leading local jockey – an honour named after Cruz that Ho won in the three previous campaigns – settled Power Koepp close to the speed from barrier one and the recent addition to Manfred Man Ka-leung’s yard did the rest.
On his fifth start for Man following previous spells with Charlie Hills in the United Kingdom and John Size in Hong Kong, Power Koepp hit the front 100m from the line and kept galloping to beat runner-up Victory Scholars by three-quarters of a length.
Chadwick paid tribute to Cruz, who trained the 32-year-old jockey’s only Group One winner – two-time Hong Kong Cup hero California Memory – and Ho, who will reclaim the Tony Cruz Award at season’s end.
“Tony is a legend. He gave me such good support when I first started out,” said Chadwick, who became the first local rider to win a Hong Kong International Races feature event when California Memory recorded the first of his back-to-back Cup victories in 2011.
“Vincent has been riding really well. He’s had a great association with a really good horse [Golden Sixty] over the past few years, so it’s good to be kept in high esteem with the other two.
“I normally don’t think about numbers that much, but it’s a good milestone to have. It’s been ringing in my ears over the last few meetings. I’ve just been trying to ride my horses to the best of my ability.”
In addition to 500 wins in Hong Kong, Chadwick has posted 33 victories outside the city – one in Macau, one in Mauritius, one in Singapore, four in the United Kingdom and 26 in Australia, including a four-timer at Lismore when he was 17 years old.
Elsewhere on the nine-race Happy Valley programme, two progressive gallopers, Gallant Hero and Sixth Generation, completed hat-tricks for handlers David Hall and Jamie Richards, respectively.
On a night of fast times – every race winner stopped the clock inside their respective class standard – Gallant Hero won the Class Four Min Fat Handicap (2,200m) more than two seconds below the benchmark.
“It’s always good to achieve a hat-trick in Hong Kong with any horse,” said Hall of Gallant Hero, who was the first of Zac Purton’s two triumphant mounts.
“He’s always shown a bit of potential. Zac’s jumped on him and seems to get the best out of him. Mentally, he’s improving with every run.
“He got a bit hot, and he pulled a bit in the early stages on his first time over 2,200m. After doing a bit of work, for him to hold on and win, I thought there was plenty of merit in the performance.
“I might put him away now because I think he might be able to win a few more next year. He’s come a long way, and that was probably a pretty tough run.”
Whereas Gallant Hero racked up his hat-trick of wins over three different tests – 1,800m at Happy Valley, 1,800m on Sha Tin’s all-weather track and 2,200m at the city circuit – Sixth Generation made it three victories in a row over 1,650m on Hong Kong Island.
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Sixth Generation won the Class Three Broom Handicap (1,650m) under Ho, running down Purton-ridden Loyal Baby to score by a short head as the $2.3 favourite.
There were Happy Valley doubles for not only Purton but also rider Karis Teetan and trainer Ricky Yiu Poon-fai, struggling handler Tony Millard celebrated just his fifth success this term when Charizard claimed the Class Five Tsun Yuen Handicap (1,650m) under the Mauritian jockey and Meaningful Star took out the card’s highest-rated contest, the Class Two Briar Handicap (1,800m), for the combination of Matthew Poon Ming-fai and Francis Lui Kin-wai.
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