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At their meeting held today, the Licensing Committee of the Hong Kong Jockey
Club GRANTED English Trainer Mr Sean Woods a Trainer's Licence for the 2002/03
season.
Mr Woods, 36, was licensed as a jumps jockey by the Jockey Club between 1984
and 1992. Between 1984 and 1990 Mr Woods served as Pupil Assistant Trainer to Mr
G Thorner, Mr F Durr, Mr N Henderson and Mr G Harwood. Then during 1990 and
1992 he was Assistant Trainer to Mr A G Hide. Mr Woods was successful in his
application for a Trainer's Licence with the Jockey Club in 1992 and commenced
training with a stable strength of 17 horses. As a result of the success he achieved, Mr
Woods was able to expand his client base and today has over 70 horses in work at his
self owned "La Grange Stables" in Newmarket.
The performance statistics of Mr Woods are:-
Year No of Horses No of Winners No of Starters
1992 17 10 83
1993 27 12 143
1994 24 14 117
1995 44 21 155
1996 39 28 202
1997 40 29 183
1998 53 32 250
1999 50 38 274
2000 60 35 264
2001 57 44 278
Total runners: 1949
Total winners: 263
Winning percentage: 13.5%
Total minor placegetters: 738
Runners in first 3 placings: 996
Winners & Place percentage: 51.1%
Group 1 Win: 1
Group 2 Win: 1
Group 3 Wins: 2
Listed Race Wins: 6
Among the most significant success of horses trained by Mr Woods are:-
MISTLE CAT Prix du Palais Royal, Deauville, 1400m (Group 3)
Premio Vittoriodi Capua, Milan, 1600m (Group 1)
ATLANTIS PRINCE Royal Lodge Stakes, Ascot, 1600m (Group 2)
LITTLE INDIAN Solario Stakes, Sandown, 1400m (Group 3)
Mr Woods has established his "La Grange Stables" from scratch with his winners
coming from unraced horses purchased by him as yearlings at sale. When purchasing
horses he has shown a liking with nicely bred and yet reasonably priced stock. The
majority of Mr Woods' winners have been in handicap races which will place him in
good stead in Hong Kong where the majority of races are run under handicap condition.
Among the many owners Mr Woods has trained for are several Hong Kong
residents. Mr Woods is the younger brother of Jockey Wendyll Woods, who is currently
licensed by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and also the nephew of Hong Kong based
Trainer Lawrence Fownes.
Jamie Stier
Stipendiary Steward
and Secretary, Licensing Committee
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English Trainer Mr Sean Woods
Is Sean related to our buddy Wendyll Woods in any way?
"Sean" is a 4-letter word starting with an "S", just like Size, perhaps a good sign. OTOH, if he's going to be like his fellow countrymen Chapple-Hyam or W. Woods...
Younger brother....it is indeed a powerhouse racing family. A Dynasty of sorts...
good strike rate!
lets hope he does better than the last super star brought over from the UK!
I heard lots of names mentioned; but not this guy. Do we really need another English trainer? They haven;t exactly set the place on fire and I doubt their normal free-range style is suited to HK anyway.
The thinking may be that if you have enough English trainers here, their total no. of wins may equal to that of an Aussie or S. African or whatever trainer.
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
Smithers
29-03-2002, 23:06
Former very-ordinary jockey Dennis Yip has obviously shown a lot more dash out of the saddle and has now picked up a licence to print money....
Good luck to the little bugger...
Here's what the JC had to say:
"The Committee has, by circulation of paper:-
1. AGREED TO GRANT a Trainer's Licence to Mr Yip Chor Hong, Dennis for the 2002/03 Season. Mr Yip is currently licensed as an Assistant Trainer and has been allocated to Trainer Brian P C Kan's stable since 1 July 1993.
2. APPROVED the Trainer's Licence for the 2002/03 season of Mr Yip be effective on 17 June 2002 so as he will be eligible to receive horses into his stable when end of season transfers are taking place.
Profile - Mr Yip Chor Hong, Dennis
Mr Yip, 34, joined the Hong Kong Jockey Club in 1982 as Racing Trainee. He was licensed as an Apprentice Jockey on 16th January 1985 and was indentured throughout his 5 year apprenticeship to Trainer Alex S T Wong. In both the 1986/1987 season and the 1987/1988 season he finished runner up in the Apprentice Jockey Championship with 14 and 10 winners respectively. He was then granted a Jockey's Licence on 1st October 1989 until 30th June 1993 on which day he relinquished his licence. Throughout his riding career Mr Yip had 1123 race rides for 59 wins, 85 seconds, 98 thirds and 86 fourths. Horses ridden by him earnt total stakesmoney of HK$16,951,000. On 1st July 1993 Mr Yip commenced employment in the position of Assistant Trainer allocated to Brian P C Kan, a position he currently holds. In this employment Mr Yip continues to ride trackwork.
During his career as a Jockey and as an Assistant Trainer Mr Yip has travelled to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, United States and New Zealand to broaden his racing knowledge. In 1999, Mr Yip satisfactorily completed the Certificate in Racehorse Management offered by the Hong Kong Jockey Club. In December 2001 and January 2002 the Club arranged for Mr Yip to undertake further training in New Zealand which was completed satisfactorily.
Former very-ordinary jockey > weren't they all. has HK managed to produce a single jock in the last 20 yrs who has managed to last the distance. it seems none of them manage to last beyond their mid twenties. also at a guess the v. best of the local jocks are 2L worse than the lower level expat jocks. ( maybe i am exaggerating a bit here ).
maybe this deserves a thread of its own!!
EB is main reason why Yip got the licence.
He always thinks Brian Kan is not a real good triner. He thinks the main reason for the good performance of this stable in recent seasons is Yip.
Next season is the last season for Kan.
It is the last chance for EB to prove his point of view.
So, he highly supports to promote Yip.
Next season, Kan will have no help from Yip.
By then,we can tell EB is right or not.
also at a guess the v. best of the local jocks are 2L worse than the lower level expat jocks.
Hardly surprising given that most local boys start riding at a rather old age.
EB is main reason why Yip got the licence.
some very juicy "inside" info there victor. am inclined to agree with EB that kan is not a very good trainer so it was a huge surprise when he won the trainers championship recently after some yrs of self declared retirement.
tis reasonable to assume Yip might have some ability as a trainer as my alternative assumption would involve drugs.
But the juiciest gossip about Yip's licence - and it has been around for the past month for obvious reasons - is that K L Tsui was strongly favoured to get the promotion ahead of Yip.
Of course a month ago, K L Tsui suddenly has his assistant trainer's career in tatters two days before the promotion is due to be announced because he is found guilty of having taken a present from a HKJC member after telling him one of Wong Yu-on's horses was going well and hard to beat. (it won - at short odds of course)
AND OF COURSE HE WOULD BE THE ONLY ASSISTANT DOING THIS!!!!!! The mail is that the member is one of Kan's owners and was put up to the scam in order to catch Tsui breaking a rule, being suspended and thus ruling him out of the promotion contest in favour of Kan's boy.
Given that the owner who gave the lucky money to him was the only witness against Tsui, none of this seems far fetched at all.
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Yet another gossip I read in one of the local papers is that Dennis Yip's wife is an instructor in the riding school and that she teaches the wives of the many higher-ups in the JC. A few good words from them certainly wouldn't have hurt his chances.
mother of god -- those guys must have spent their lives studying machiavelli. is it really possible such downright deviousness and nastiness exists?? :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
One of the first local punting wisdom I learned is that Kan and Wong Yu On are "on friendly terms". In other words, their horses don't normally clash with one another. Has the situation changed? It's hard for me to believe that Kan would do something like this to Wong's AT.
I think Kan and Wong Yu-on are close in certain areas - perhaps such as punting, but it's still every man for himself in many others...it's a separate issue...and it could be that Kan was not involved - the assitant and the owner may have cooked it up independently..interesting to know whether the owner gives Yip horses
and if they have spent their lives with a Chinese translation of "The Prince" that's why Size is showing up how they train!! They never studied that so well.
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Not so sure if they've ever studied Machiavelli's "The Prince" but most likely have read Sun Tzu's "The Art of War".
Steppin Short
02-04-2002, 07:11
Hobbes, Masum....
one jockey produced through the ranks of HK did go ok.....one TONY CRUZ, he aquitted himself with the best, and hasn't done to bad a job in the training side either.
on the trainers side of things, most of the trainers all get on well, bar Kan and Allen, there is a friendly rivally between them all, after all it is a small community, with the majority of trainers living cheek on jowl in the Sha Tin quarters.
Strong rumours do suggest that Raymond Tsui was set up, time will tell on that one......
Maybe Raymond should call in the ICAC to investigate...wouldn't that be a can of worms !!!!
SS i did remember cruz which is why i said 20 yrs rather than never. :D :D :D :D :D
Stepping Short, re what happened to Raymond Tsui, there is a Chinese book whose title can be roughly translated as "Thick Skin, Black Heart". It's sort of equivalent to Machiavelli's "Prince". After studying the heroes of the past, the author concluded that in order to succeed one needs to be thick skinned and have a black heart, i.e. be shameless and vicious; and that back scratching and back stabbing is de rigueur for personal advancement. Those assistant trainers who want to be promoted in future should run, not walk, to get a copy of this indispensable book.
Thursday September 2 1999
Trainers face performance test
ROBIN PARKE
Hong Kong trainers who do not maintain a stable strength of 20 sound horses and win 12 races a season face non-renewal of their licences.
Anticipated performance guidelines were set out to Hong Kong's 26 licensed trainers at a pre-season briefing yesterday. It is the first time in the sport's professional history that trainers have been set strict standards to meet.
Trainers must also have minimum prizemoney earnings of $6 million per season and the percentage of winners to runners is set at a minimum of five per cent.
Had these guidelines been in place last season, five trainers would have failed to meet them in relation to the number of winners. One of them, Lam Hung-fie, retired at the end of the season.
The axe will not fall immediately. A trainer will first be asked to discuss reasons for the decline in performance with the Licensing Committee and, if there is no improvement in the following season, there will be a further review.
A trainer may still get one final chance but if he does not show improvement in the next season, his trainer's licence will be revoked - unless he produces sufficient cause as to why that should not happen. A major consideration - in fact, top of the list - is integrity.
The meeting was addressed by chief executive Lawrence Wong, director of racing Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, and new chief stipendiary steward John Schreck.
Last night the director of racing said: 'It is about competition and performance. This has been done to give trainers clearer guidance on their standing and the Licensing Committee and the Board of Stewards have agreed on certain criteria.' In a no-nonsense comment, Schreck said that to have a trainer's licence in Hong Kong was a privilege. In fact, the Jockey Club has applications from trainers around the world and also has assistant trainers who go on overseas duty with established trainers to improve their racing knowledge.
Former assistant trainers such as Ricky P.F. Yiu, Peter Ho and Francis K.W. Lui have all done brilliantly since being granted licences and the Jockey Club is intent on giving other younger would-be trainers a chance.
Following the Mughal Palace case last season, trainers were officially informed that the Jockey Club will not be providing guidelines in relation to withdrawal time for medications being used in the legitimate treatment of horses.
Trainers will be fully accountable and will be required to ensure horses are free of any prohibited substances when they race.
In the Mughal Palace incident, trainer David Hayes had discontinued treatment days before the cut-off point recommended by the Jockey Club's veterinary department. He was subsequently fined a token $5,000.
now coming to the end of 3 seasons since the guidelines were introduced so how strict has the HKJC been in implimenting them ???
"A trainer may still get one final chance but if he does not show improvement in the next season, his trainer's licence will be revoked - unless he produces sufficient cause as to why that should not happen. A major consideration - in fact, top of the list - is integrity."
the above section of the "guidelines" refers to the situation after 3 seasons and with the proviso unless. if the JC is not going to follow up on their own guidelines why bother having them in the first place.
PCH performance over the last 3 years >
99/00 .. 7 / 8 / 10 // 155 .. 5.3m
00/01 .. 6 / 6 / 10 // 141 .. 4.3m
01/02 .. 4 / 5 / 11 // 123 .. 3.7m
so PCH fails on 3 counts having never achieved 12 winners or 5% strike rate or 6m in prizemoney.
would a club jockey be invited back after such a dismal performance. also it is unlikely too many owners have much confidence in him so how can his record be expected to get much better??
Monty Burns
17-04-2002, 19:15
...all good points H
And given most locals 'rubbish' PCH's ability - little hope of him securing more clients or more and better horses.
Which suggests he will always be battling to make a name for himself here. You have to wonder how he made a name for himself in the UK - guess it was having good horses and possibly the different training style over there?
But a good trainer should be able to adapt to any and all conditions.
It would also appear the JC is extremely reluctant to invite such a 'big name' trainer to come here and then kick him out - at least in the first few years. Suggests to the world they made another blunder.
And they can excuse this lack of action by saying he needs time to settle in and build up a stronger stable - even though most feel he's unlikely to become a force here even if you give him another 10 years.
The word around the JC is that he's been told to sharpen things up next season. Then it could come down to him being asked to gracefully retreat or be shown the door.
Either way, I won't miss him. And I certainly won't miss dopes like Eddie Lo or David Hill.
Most of the horses that PCH had in his first season here were from Biancome. Not so surprising that many of them didn't find their form again after they had to make do without their "juice". Presumably the JC ignores that season and gives PCH another year to prove himself. If he still fails to perform next year, there will be no more excuses.
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