View Full Version : Best Jockey
HK probably has the strongest jockeys competition in the world but who is the best ?
Currently , i wouldn`t have anyone rated ahead of Doleuze .
Any other opinions ?
Everyone will tell ya Coetzee and Doleuze and Whyte. All good. I wouldn't leave Woods off that list of greats either....he's just bean a bit outa luck.
RaymondSD
14-02-2002, 20:58
There are some great jockeys but I have to rate Shane Dye up with the best in the world.
Four jockeys -- the French pair Legrix & Doleuze and the S. African pair Marcus & Marwing -- scored "Double Happiness" in yesterday's Chinese New Year meeting.
As for our man Woods...long sigh!
Wendyll, gotta tell Woods to get out of the woods pronto!
I've backed so many of his losers that I feel like asking him for a long term service award.
Maybe Wendyll's real talent is golf - like his brother!
________
Bowl For My Bong (http://glassgallery.tumblr.com)
rubbintug
16-02-2002, 17:44
Since my man T.Culhane left, I have been following Hammer-Hansen.
MW Leung is my favourite local
I see comedy is your strong suit Rubbin.... :D
cheesebeast
17-02-2002, 12:54
Just checked Doleuze's stats for his riding stint in Singapore.
In the 2000 season, he had 23 winners from 103 rides for a winning strike rate of 22.3%, and had 58 out of those 103 rides placed in the first three.
In the 2001 season, he had 6 winners out of 78 rides for a winning strike rate of 7.7%, and had 29 out of 78 rides placed in the first three. Quite a difference in winning strike rate between the two seasons.
Doleuze is certainly riding well & looks in the same class as anyone in town.
The ride yesterday on Platinum express was vg , i priced him at $10 but the public had him at $4.5 , i was feeling sick at the 600 when he was in the perfect position & the only horse travelling.
Anyhow , he`s still only human as his ride on Best of the Best wasn`t the best, a combo of bad luck & judgement got him beat there.
The combination of trainer John Size and jockey Shane Dye brought the New Year fireworks late to Sha Tin yesterday as they combine for a treble on the day Size named Dye as the new rider for Electronic Unicorn.
Size announced after racing that Dye was to take over from suspended Robbie Fradd on Electronic Unicorn in the Hong Kong Gold Cup on February 24, as the Australian trainer seeks yet another highlight in a blinding first Hong Kong season.
The treble yesterday continued Size's remarkable impact this term, winning successive races with Lucky Combination, My Favourite and Splendid Bo Bo with Dye on board before Billion Delight (Dwayne Dunn) failed by just a nose to make it four in a row.
Although he has previously trained five on a day in Sydney, it was Size's biggest haul in Hong Kong since saddling his first runner here in September. The feat took him to 24 wins for the season, pushed his remarkable strike rate back up over 20 per cent and hoisted him into the top five on the trainers' table, trailing pacemaker Tony Cruz (34), but Size poured scorn on any suggestion that he was a championship title chance.
"You must be kidding," Size laughed. "I'm 10 wins behind Tony Cruz, that's still a good margin and there are a few others in front of me. I don't worry about those things too much. If it happens, great, but it's not something I'm thinking about."
Size admitted several of his team looked tough to beat before the meeting yesterday but added he had thought that before and come away empty-handed.
"They did all look to have good chances on paper, but it's normally a recipe for disappointment to come to the meeting thinking you'll win three or four races. You never win more than you think you will and sometimes you end up with nothing," Size said.
"But I'm very pleased. I came here with seven runners, three won, two were placed and the other two, Toymark and Danriva, ran well in their races. All the horses raced well. The three that won today obviously aren't the best horses in the stable but they were all pretty much horses which had found the right race and the right day so it's nice to see them win when they can."
The pair opened proceedings when Speedy Forward's three-win streak came to an end courtesy of Lucky Combination in a tough win that promised more. With Gerald Mosse unable to make the weight after winning three in a row on Speedy Forward, Jimmy Ting took over with a faultless display and looked like making it four wins for the four-year-old until Dye and Size appeared with the fortuitously-named Lucky Combination.
The three-year-old outstayed Speedy Forward to win by half a length and indicated he could be a solid middle-distance horse in the making. "Lucky Combination is well-bred and only inexperienced, so he might have a future," Size said.
"He's by Danehill out a Sir Tristram mare so there's plenty to say he can improve and he'll probably be suited by longer. He's shown good stamina today in stepping up from a 1,400 metres first run to 1,800 metres and being able to win. But having said that, he could not have been ridden any better and he had no disadvantages in the run today."
Size's My Favourite might have been a winner at his first run for the trainer in mid-January when most unlucky but made amends at Happy Valley and continued the good work in the fourth event over 1400 metres.
"When they went quick that suited him as he was coming back from the 1,650 metres win at Happy Valley and had to be ridden back from the wide gate. He was just too strong in the end," Size said. "It's nearly four weeks since he ran last time and I think keeping him a little bit fresh might suit the horse. He didn't win by any big margin but he did the job and it isn't easy to win races end on end here."
Size and Dye wrapped up their treble apiece when Splendid Bo Bo arrived first to break his maiden after 18 runs in the fifth contest, also over 1,400 metres. The horse's connections had been on the wrong end of the result when promising youngster Joyful Spirit was runner-up for Ivan Allan in yesterday's griffin race but Splendid Bo Bo put that right when he lived up to all the promise of his first-start second for Size.
"He hasn't done much wrong," Size said. "His first run was good and then he's backed that up today. I expect he should be able to win another one yet."
Coming on the tail end of Size's three wins, Dwayne Dunn was philosophical about missing the fourth as Billion Delight went under to Equikit in the narrowest of photos. "I guess it was a big ask, but I thought he had them covered about the 150 metres," Dunn said. "He couldn't have had a better run and just wasn't quite good enough on the day."
The treble yesterday continued Size's remarkable impact this term, winning successive races with Lucky Combination, My Favourite and Splendid Bo Bo
What's most impressive is that the horses came from three different trainers: Fownes, Kan & Allan. Maybe the JC should ask Size to host a seminar entitled "How to train a winner" for the benefit of other trainers in HK.
Good idea Masun,
Hill , Chapple Hymm ,KC Lo & B.Ng clearly need help.
Splendid Bobo is an internal bleeder ,yet he`s improved it on Ivan. Not a bad rap.
Anyone know who is the rider called M. Pumpa that is listed in the trial results from Sha Tin yesterday? Guess he's one of the overseas work riders? Or is it really Jimmy Cassidy on holidays? (The only true Pumper)
cheesebeast
20-02-2002, 16:38
http://www.racenet.com.au/jockeys/jocks_overall.asp?jockey=M%20PUMPA&track=null
Yes Baldric, how are those turnips treating you these days, I think your mate Pumpa is an Aussie lad.
There is a real feud going on between Legrix and Woods these days and you'll love watching them in action in the second-last trial on Tuesday....take a look at the head-on of the final stages...and also watch D. Whyte's reaction.
Jockey Story: Scott Seamer
Scott Seamer, the boy from Ballina, was the toast of Melbourne when he won the Caulfield Cup on New Zealand mare Ethereal.
Words by Danny Power. Photo courtesy of Kristen Manning.
Scott Seamer didn't forget his roots when he accepted the trophy for winning the $2.25 million Caulfield Cup (2400m) on New Zealand mare Ethereal.
The win was a triumph for the battling boy from Ballina. He made a point of mentioning his family and friends in the northern NSW coastal town for all their support and encouragement over the years. "I am sure the people of Ballina and the northern coast will be feeling just as happy and proud as I am," Seamer said.
Seamer, 33, started his riding career in Ballina before leaving for richer pastures in Queensland where he has built a formidable record in a short time.
After battling along with a group of jockeys just beyond the big time, Seamer has emerged dramatically in the last 12 months. He finished the 2000-2001 season the leading rider in Queensland, piloting 132 winners and a strike rate 5.5 rides per win.
Seamer developed a strong association with the Bill Mitchell satellite stable. He also rode many winners for Lee Freedman's Brisbane branch.
However, it was his linking with trainer Sheila Laxon and the 3YO filly Ethereal during the Brisbane winter carnival that has changed Seamer's life.
Ethereal, royally bred by Rhythm from Romanee Conti, produced a devastating burst to win the Queensland Oaks, a performance that had her trainer and owners Peter and Philip Vela (of New Zealand Bloodstock fame) making long range plans to win the Caulfield Cup.
Seamer made sure he hooked into those plans. He assured Laxon and the Velas that he will travel anywhere to ride the mare in the spring. That's exactly what he did, twice crossing the Tasman to ride Ethereal in lead-up races in New Zealand, sacrificing rides in Melbourne, where he had based himself since late August.
Seamer rode Ethereal perfectly to win the Caulfield Cup. Settling her just off the main pace with cover two wide. The solid tempo suited the superbly trained mare. Ethereal and Sky Heights (Damien Oliver) came with a rush around the field on the bend and set course for the finishing line in a ding-dong struggle with outsider Celestial Show.
Seamer was desperate on the mare, flayling the whip aggressively and she responded with ears pinned back.
The drama that was to follow took its toll on Seamer at the presentation. At one time he sunk to his haunches while owner Peter Vela accepted the Caulfield Cup.
If he thought Damien Oliver was a tough competitor on the track, then Seamer ran into racing's Geoffrey Robinson as Oliver argued his case after firing in a protest.
"The protest was the longest and hardest 10 minutes of my life," Seamer said. He told Oliver he was "clutching at straws" during the hearing. The two jockeys embraced after the stewards dismissed the protest. "You didn't have to put me through that," Seamer said. "Yes I did," replied Oliver.
Seamer, who rode a winning double early on Caulfield Cup days on the Freedman fillies moon Dragon and Joie, has firmly established himself as a "carnival" jockey. He admits it will be tempting not to relocate himself in Melbourne full time.
Lee Freedman praised Seamer for both his attitude and skill. "He is a jockey willing to do the hard yards. In both his winning rides for me at Caulfield he showed initiative, which is exactly what you want from a jockey undre pressure situtations," he said.
The next assignment for him will be to follow Ethereal to Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin in December, although this coming week could see him working hard on Laxon and the Vela brothers to convince them to run the mare in the Melbourne Cup.
Homer J.
21-02-2002, 22:03
Wish I could see the trial you mentioned Lepper....I heard that Legrix and Woods had a fight in the jockeys room at Happy Valley last month???? Probably no punches, but heated words was the mail.
:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: confused.gif
Shallow Hal
29-03-2002, 02:28
The Committee has, via circulation of paper, AGREED TO GRANT, subject to a satisfactory medical examination, a Club Jockey's Licence to Jockey Bernard Fayd’herbe for the period 8 April 2002 to 30 June 2002, inclusive.
Jockey Fayd’herbe, 20, is currently licensed by the Jockey Club of Southern Africa. During his apprenticeship he had 1945 race rides for 124 (6.4%) wins with 629 (32.3%) of his mounts finishing in the first three placings. As an apprentice jockey he rode the winners of the Fillies Stakes (Listed) and the Champagne Stakes (Group 3).
During the current season, Jockey Fayd’herbe’s first as a senior jockey, he is lying in third position on South African national Jockey Championship. This season, up to 25 March 2002, he has had 693 race rides for 117 (16.7%) wins with 290 (41.8%) of his mounts finishing in the first three placings. So far this season he has ridden the winners of the Queens Plate (Group 1), the Merchants Stakes (Group 2) and the Magnolia Handicap (Group 3).
Jockey Fayd’herbe gives his riding weight as 119 lbs.
Shallow Hal
29-03-2002, 02:38
These South Africans can come up with a bloody name....thanks largely to the Dutch?
Fanny DeVilliers; Hanse Cronje; Felix Coetzee; Dwain Pype; and those swimmers...Inge De Bruijn and Pieter van den Hoogenband.
rubbintug
29-03-2002, 13:49
Bernard Fay D'Herbe De Maudave.
That is a bit of a name.
As one scribe suggested "he carries his driver's licence under his arm."
His recent strike rate is impressive though. And HK have nutured nobodies into stars if they come here with the right talent and work ethic...especially from RSA!
gatumgatum
29-03-2002, 18:53
There's another interesting jockey currently doing the rounds in Brisbane with the Bruce McLauchlan stables by the name of Garry Schofield. Wouldn't be surprised if he ends up here as well.
a good jockey is one who can judge pace and knows where to position his horse. and also be able to extract everything out of him in the final straight.
jockeys who do there here extremely well is marwing, coetzee, dye and dunn. but because of how we get so many short heads in hk you have to give it to coetzee and marwing who are SH kings.
[ April 07, 2002: Message edited by: shadey wadey ]
Wednesday, April 10, 2002 RACING
Form jockey Fayd'herbe set for SAR success
ALAN AITKEN
If South African jockey Bernard Fayd'herbe de Maudave was a racehorse, his form pattern, breeding and temperament would have him well in the betting to make a success of his Hong Kong stint, which starts tonight at Happy Valley.
His total of 254 career wins in South Africa reads well enough, but not as impressively as the leaps he has made each season, doubling and trebling his winning numbers to the point where his resume has fallen swiftly behind reality.
The tallish 20-year-old has the look and attitude of a top jockey and the form of a bullet performer on the music charts. Shakespeare wrote that there is a time in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, may lead to greatness. Well, Bernard Fayd'herbe de Maudave has sailed into Hong Kong with that flood tide behind him.
His grand nomenclature is born of the influence of his French father but abbreviates neatly to the more manageable Bernard Fayd'herbe for publication, and the young rider has his family background to find the roots of his own talent.
"My mother is South African and my grandfather, Tiger Wright, was a champion jockey there," he said at Sha Tin trackwork yesterday. "Actually, even though he was a successful rider it never really interested me. But we moved to Madagascar for seven years and I rode horses for fun there."
That took young Fayd'herbe from his love of riding to an early involvement in amateur racing on the island. "I starting riding races when I was probably 12 or 13, and rode three winners," he recalled. "But a South African trainer who was helping them to start professional racing saw me ride and felt I had something. He told me I should go to South Africa and give it a try."
A five-year term in the South African jockey academy in KwaZulu-Natal followed and Fayd'herbe did enough there to impress for leading trainer Justin Snaith during his final year as an apprentice, followed by a successful link with Mark Stewart.
"When I was freelancing in Durban, the leading Cape Town trainer, Mike Bass, offered me a job as stable jockey," he explained. Fayd'herbe has rocketed to the top of the South African lists with 130 winners this season since making the link with Bass.
"It was a bit of a decision to leave to come here actually," he said. "I was leading the jockey log when I left last week. I had been riding virtually two winners every meeting and rode five in one day just last month. Things were going very well for me and I really wanted to win the championship as it's a big thing in South Africa.
"I was in a difficult situation, but my boss said it would be the best thing for me. This is so competitive, riding against the best jockeys, so in the end I thought it would be better for my experience."
Fayd'herbe had a great start to his professional career, with wins at his first and third mounts, and makes his Hong Kong debut on Valley specialist Wonderful Winners in the final event tonight.
"I arrived on Thursday so it was difficult to get rides, but I'm hoping I'll have a few for the weekend," he said. "It was a bit different riding trackwork the first day because there is more emphasis on times than in South Africa, but it isn't too difficult to adjust.
"I'm doing a little for Tony Millard, but I want to spread myself around and do what I can for as many trainers as I can. I don't come with any special expectations - I'll just put my down and go for it and we'll see what happens."
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Friday, April 12, 2002 RACING
Country boy relishes HK challenge
Australian ace Seamer has made a smooth transition from relative obscurity to superstar status
ALAN AITKEN
Australian jockey Scott Seamer has left the spotlights for the lowlights in Hong Kong racing and nobody is happier about it than Seamer himself.
In the past 10 months, the self-described country boy who has in the past mixed riding with part-time macadamia nut farming, has set Australian racing alight with his rise from presumed obscurity to being the most sought-after Group One rider in the nation.
But it is a media profile Seamer, 33, has tired of, as it concedes nothing to years of hard work as a monotonous winner on the circuit around the north of New South Wales.
Few riders anywhere win 12 Group Ones in a year, and Seamer admits it is only just sinking in, but he is happy to have fresh horizons, too. "Until I got to Hong Kong and had a week without riding races, I haven't had the chance to think about it and go, 'Wow'!" Seamer explained. "But none of those wins count for anything here. I'm straight back to the bottom and it's all in front of me. I have to get rides first, then get good rides, then prove to Hong Kong that giving me a licence was warranted."
That alone will give Seamer an appetite after hustling around for six months in planes between different centres of Australia as well as frequent fruitful visits to New Zealand and his appearance with Dettori and company at the Mauritius invitation meeting.
Until champion mare Ethereal's recent retirement, Seamer had planned a European working holiday accompanied by his wife Louise in the middle of this year, culminating with riding the mare in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
"It's a shame because I feel Ethereal would have measured up. The holiday is still on when I've finished here, and I still hope I might get the chance to ride in Britain, possibly Ireland," he said. "We'll need the break by then but for now the change to Hong Kong is just the fresh focus that I need."
Seamer's recent resume also includes winning four Group races on the Golden Slipper card in Sydney, four on a feature day at New Zealand's Te Rapa and allegations that he actually has won a race on a broomstick. His progression has been phenomenal since the mid-1990s when he was seen as a prolific but minor race winner, operating from the small town of Ballina, near Grafton where apprentice Cliff Lai Ka-kui has started to make his name this season.
The story goes, often embellished during his boom, that Seamer was taught to be a jockey by a rodeo cowboy, Ron Gosling.
"Yeah, well that's not entirely right," he said. "Ron was a very good horseman first and foremost. When he was young, he chose to use that talent riding in rodeos, but he moved on to horse racing, and was a top trainer in the Grafton area for 10 years."
Country racing might sound a million miles from Hong Kong, and it is. But country Australia is extremely competitive in any horse business, because the jockeys and trainers have grown up with the animals around them and have an innate working knowledge of them that city people struggle to ever learn.
"Actually, I had a good look at the Happy Valley races on Wednesday night and I can see that the racing style there has more in common with country racing at home than with the metropolitan racing," Seamer observed. "The city racing in Australia can tend to be a style where they get a rest then sprint home and the horse with the best sprint wins. Country racing is faster, there is more pressure right through the race. I think that will make it easier for me to adapt."
Australia does not have an official national championship - the country is smashed up into myriad championships for local jurisdictions - but Seamer has often been near the top of the unofficial national tallies that treat any win as a win, regardless of venue.
The tide turned when Seamer changed his target, if not his base, five years ago and started commuting to Brisbane meetings.
"Wherever you go, riding winners is about getting on the best horses in those races, but targeting Brisbane gave me a chance to ride horses capable of winning major races as well," he said.
In his fourth season in Brisbane, Seamer won its championship and, more importantly, linked up with a coming superstar.
The New Zealand-trained Ethereal was just another aspiring classic hope when she visited Brisbane aimed at the Oaks last Australian winter, but that winning ride started Seamer on a meteoric climb that hasn't stopped. "Without her, I wouldn't have done what I've done and I doubt whether I would be in Hong Kong," he said. "Her wins led to other rides and then they won. We had short association but she has taken me a long way."
It wasn't all the super stayer's doing, though. Seamer caught plenty of attention when he paid his own way to New Zealand to stay on the mare in her early preparation for what ultimately became a Caulfield-Melbourne Cup winning double.
The list of Seamer's major wins since is not missing much aside from a Cox Plate or an AJC Derby, and in April 2001, you could have had odds about Seamer having a ride in the races he has won, but he doesn't thrill to the "overnight sensation" tag.
"I haven't been that surprised. I always worked hard and I rode a minimum of 100 winners a season for the past decade," he says. "Not a great deal changed. My home is still at Ballina. I haven't ridden more winners, just better winners."
Now he turns to Hong Kong with the same approach, and is genuinely pleased with the seven rides he has for his first Sha Tin meeting tomorrow. "I'm under no pressure. It's easier to come in and move up than it is for the guys who are already there," he said. "I have to crawl before I walk - learn a bit about the horses and trainers, and how the other jockeys ride, that sort of thing. But it's great to have this chance and be here and do my best to make it work out."
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One jockey who`s NOT the best any more is E.Legrix, once upon a time he was the benchmark but not any more.
Legrix had a baby last year?! Also St. Martin not so ago and Shane Dye recently. Seems that the jocks become more cautious once they've got a baby. Can't really blame them, we just have to factor this in when considering jockey performance.
His now the tarik king local jockey are much more
better visiting jockey that trying now is M Cahill
or C willam .
His now the tarik king local jockey , At least he`s good for something ?
Horny Harry
24-04-2002, 18:01
Tale of hope for Seamer
Alan Aitken
Australian Scott Seamer's sudden and unlucky exit from the Hong Kong scene has rather a lot in common with Dwayne Dunn's experience of a year ago. Dunn's 18th Hong Kong ride, Fortune Sallian, fell at Happy Valley and the jockey finished with a crushed vertebra which ended his season prematurely. Dunn reapplied for the first session of this term and never looked back his Group One win on Sunday was the icing on what has already been a terrific season.
Fair Lady was Seamer's 10th ride and, while his injuries overall are more severe, he too finished with a crushed vertebra. Seamer has already had discussions with Jockey Club officials about reapplying for next season, although both he and the club will want to be assured of his fitness before anything positive can happen. While Seamer will be missed for the rest of the season, fans who had witnessed the worthwhile start made by 20-year-old South African Bernard Fayd'herbe will get to see him in action again. He rushed home on the weekend after the sudden death of his father, but is expected to return, perhaps as early as next week, to ride out the season.
Wednesday, May 15, 2002 RACING Apprentices begin to shine
ALAN AITKEN
The efforts of the more senior Hong Kong apprentice riders are worth a mention this week, too. Vincent Sit looked pretty good in Macau on Sunday, winning three races. And while the depth there is not quite Hong Kong standard, that gives some sort of benchmark as to where he has come this season.
There is unmistakable improvement in both Sit and his main rival for the champion apprentice, Way Leung, this season.
Both have improved their positional sense, their strength and their timing and while they still make plenty of errors by comparison with the big boys, they are still claimers who are entitled to make mistakes and, at the same time, feel proud of their progress.
Leung copped his first suspension for careless riding on Saturday, but had steered around 609 rides in the past two seasons before getting it and he'll be doing well, and better than most, if he can keep that sort of strike-rate intact in the future.
What has been most pleasing about Leung's riding is that any regular race watcher can see him looking in races and making himself aware of what is going on around him, a large part of the reason why it has taken him so long to incur a suspension.
A great deal of the improvement in the apprentice riders has been credited to starter Philip Waldron, himself a former top-class rider, who has worked more closely with them one-on-one than has been the case in the past. That Hong Kong has fewer apprentice jockeys than in days gone by has been decried in some areas of the press, but if the trade-off is a higher standard from the few riders who do make it through a tough school then so much the better.
The Jockey Club is now looking at ways to improve the training of the young riders even before they go overseas for a broader racing education, as Sit and Leung and others have done in Australia and elsewhere.
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