Three local jockeys are expected to call time on their Hong Kong careers at the end of this season, with Alex Lai Hoi-wing and Jack Wong Ho-nam joining Victor Wong Chun in not applying for a licence for 2023-24.
Victor Wong confirmed he wouldn’t be continuing in May, and it’s believed Jack Wong and Lai will also be absent from next term’s riding roster, which will be finalised when the Jockey Club licensing committee meets on Friday.
The timing seems right for three jockeys who occupy the bottom three rungs of the premiership and have struggled to make an impact for some time.
After adding a single success each this term, Jack Wong boasts 89 victories in a local career dating back to 2015, and Victor Wong has saluted 64 times since returning to the city in 2018.
Sitting below them on the table is Lai, who hasn’t managed a winner since September 2021 and has only had 40 rides this season.
He’ll walk away a Group One winner, however, with his victory aboard Ricky Yiu Poon-fai’s Ultra Fantasy in the 2010 Sprinters Stakes (1,200m) in Japan the highlight of a career that dates back to 2004 and boasts 283 Hong Kong wins.
Their departures, which come close on the heels of the exit of Brazilian trio Silvestre de Sousa, Vagner Borges and Ruan Maia, are expected to open the door for at least one expatriate addition to the riding ranks, while it’s believed officials have been working hard to ensure recent arrivals Brenton Avdulla and Michael Dee return to Hong Kong following the off-season.
What will definitely arrive after Friday’s meeting is a warning for a raft of trainers in the vicinity of a strike for failing to meet the Jockey Club’s benchmark, which stipulates handlers with a Conghua stable must reach 18 wins and single-site handlers 16, with only two in Class Five counting.
While Tony Millard, Me Tsui Yu-sak and Dennis Yip Chor-hong have varying degrees of work to do to avoid a strike, it’s only single-site trainers Michael Chang Chun-wai and Peter Ho Leung who are facing a potential forced end to their careers.
Both have received black marks against their names in the past two seasons, and a third strike would almost certainly spell the end.
After his win on the weekend, Chang sits on 17 victories for the campaign, of which five have come in the cellar grade, meaning he needs two more successes in Class Four or better.
Lady’s Choice posts Purton’s 150th win and moves Chang closer to avoiding strike
Ho sits four winners below Chang but only needs three more to avoid a strike, and he has one Class Five triumph up his sleeve.
What we know already from a trainers’ perspective is that it’s Richard Gibson out, Cody Mo Wai-kit and Mark Newnham in ahead of next season. Chang and Ho have nine meetings to ensure there are no more changes to the training ranks for 2023-24.
Sweynesse finally spells
Lucky Sweynesse’s record season is officially over, with trainer Manfred Man Ka-leung confirming the three-time Group One winner will not push onto next weekend’s Group Three Premier Cup (1,400m) at Sha Tin.
In a season that’s netted more than HK$44 million in prize money across eight wins from 10 starts, Lucky Sweynesse became the first sprinter since the great Silent Witness to sweep the Hong Kong Speed Series with elite-level wins in the Centenary Sprint Cup (1,200m), Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1,400m) and Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1,200m).
Lucky Sweynesse then equalled Beauty Generation’s record for wins in a single Hong Kong season, notching his eighth success this term in the Group Three Sha Tin Vase (1,200m) on June 4.
Man left the door ajar for a crack at a ninth victory following the Sha Tin Vase, but on Wednesday night he conceded it’s time for his superstar to have a rest.
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