Wandering Eyes

Tommy Berry will be the first stable-retained jockey in almost a decade to switch to a club contract after the Jockey Club agreed to the dissolution of his arrangement with trainer John Moore. Berry has endured a difficult season, with only seven of his 13 wins being for Moore and the trainer himself has had 14 winners with outside jockeys aboard. The Jockey Club licensing committee agreed on Thursday to revoke Berry’s stable retained licence and simultaneously issue a club jockey licence... View the full article

Ruzaili back riding in Singapore races on Friday View the full article

Brown duo to press forward from bad gates View the full article

The Hong Kong career of Italian jockey Alberto Sanna is starting to look like a case study in persistence after he carried off a double at Happy Valley on Wednesday night including his biggest win yet on Gold Mount. In February, Sanna had been in the doldrums, with two wins since the start of his stint in December, none for seven weeks and he wasn’t attracting the kind of support to change that. But Sanna only worked himself harder, waiting for his luck to turn, and has ridden seven... View the full article

Japanese-trained runners have earned a reputation as fierce competitors on foreign soil but as a record 14 runners descend on Dubai, star jockey Christophe Lemaire believes the country’s horses are still underrated. On Saturday the French jockey rides three Japanese horses, including Derby hero Rey De Oro in the US$6 million Sheema Classic, on what could be a banner night for the proud racing nation at Meydan. “There is no doubt the Japanese horses, and the trainers, are underrated... View the full article

Young's first Group runner aimed towards longer Legs View the full article

Harry lands a rock-solid 3YO chance in Yabadabadoo View the full article

Leaders, leaders, leaders. It was awfully hard to get away from them at Sha Tin on Sunday. From the seven winners on turf, both 1,000m winners led all the way, Agree, Regency Bo Bo, and Audacity were all in front entering the home straight, Right Call was second and Simply Brilliant was the run-on star of the day, coming from third to score. That may have given the appearance of bias on the turf and there may have been some minor element of that, but largely the circle events were run in a... View the full article

Trainer Ricky Yiu Poon-fai looks to have a great hand in the Happy Valley Vase (1,800m) and might even pull off an upset with Jolly Banner trying a distance for the first time. Yiu saddles up the eight-time Valley winner and possible pacemaker Packing Dragon (Matthew Poon Ming-fai), who is looking to post three straight wins at the track but his second stringer Jolly Banner (Jack Wong Ho-nam) is also of interest with a nice run from the draw and a claim. Jolly Banner has a terrific record of 20... View the full article

David Ferraris heads to Happy Valley with high hopes for two horses returning from lay-offs as Amazing and Call Me Awesome resume after solid lead-up trials. The South African trainer sends four horses to the races, all of them to be ridden by leading local Derek Leung Ka-chun and each appearing to have a solid chance. Amazing arrived with Ferraris from former trainer Francis Lui Kin-wai with lameness issues that saw the gelding undergo surgery and delayed his seasonal return. The good looking... View the full article

Joao Moreira was the last jockey to be beaten on Winx way back in 2015 but he will be trying to break the mighty mare’s win streak – and silence his doubters Down Under – when he rides Irish raider Success Days in the Group One Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick on April 14. Moreira was rolled on Winx when she was favourite in the 2015 Australian Oaks at the same track and since then Chris Waller’s mare has rattled off 24 straight victories, 17 of them at Group One level... View the full article

Apprentice jockey Dylan Mo Hin-tung has been left with a serious injury after another barrier trial fall at Sha Tin this morning, with his mount Owner’s Delight breaking down underneath the young rider in the final stages. Neil Callan, following Owner’s Delight on My Bear Cat, was unable to avoid the falling horse and also crashed on to the all-weather track but Callan escaped apparently without injury. It was the second trial fall in four days, following Umberto Rispoli’s... View the full article

Merlion fall-back option if Augustano doesn't handle turf View the full article

Grylls to ride Lim's Samurai two kilos over in JBBA Rocket Man Sprint View the full article

Daniel Moor, Alysha Collett licensed for six months, Ben Melham licensed for one day View the full article

Hive of activity for Baertschiger at big weekend View the full article

Michael Freedman has been true to his word with a patient approach in his first season but the tide is turning and he heads to Happy Valley on Wednesday night with a small but strong hand. The Australian has had just 143 runners through 58 meetings – second least of any trainer – but has managed 10 wins at a reasonable strike rate of 6.99 per cent. That win rate is better than high-profile trainers Tony Cruz and Caspar Fownes have managed this term, and Freedman should be able to... View the full article

The Chris So Wai-yin-trained A Beautiful returned to the class where all his successes have come at Sha Tin on Sunday and might have been a little unfortunate not to get the prize. The gelding’s prior 10 starts in Class Four had produced all of his three wins as well as two minor placings, while he has struggled up a grade all his career. His 32 starts in Class Three have yielded only one third placing. So, despite some moderate on-paper form recently, it was some sort of surprise to see... View the full article

The Hong Kong Jockey Club will rejoin the buying bench at Sydney’s Easter Yearling Sale again next month after a “familiarisation” visit to Hong Kong and Conghua Training Centre by top-level Australian quarantine officials last week. The visit by Australia’s Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) officials was not a formal inspection of facilities but another step in thawing relations with the club that turned frosty last October, when future interaction... View the full article

It was finders keepers as Zac Purton parlayed what was already a good weekend into an even better one when he matched his career-best haul of five wins on a Hong Kong programme and proved king of the dirt along the way. For the third time, Purton landed five at Sha Tin to follow on from his Group One win and narrow Golden Slipper Stakes second at Rosehill in Sydney 24 hours earlier. Obviously, the plane food overnight agreed with him, as Purton was off the mark quickly with Ever Strong, setting... View the full article

There was a sense of both significance and synchronicity to Fine Needle’s stirring Takamatsunomiya Kinen win, for not only was it a maiden Group One for Godolphin’s Japanese operation, but the breakthrough came after a recent change to a variation of the global giant’s iconic blue silks. Until last weekend, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s horses trained in Japan carried the maroon and white silks, and while they had captured numerous feature victories, a top-... View the full article

It was a red-letter day for two apprentice jockeys at Sha Tin, with Victor Wong Chun kicking off his local career while Matthew Poon Ming-fai reached an important milestone. Poon found the lead on Regency Bo Bo for Tony Cruz in the final race and blew away the white-hot favourite sitting outside him, Raging Storm, to give the apprentice his 45th win in Hong Kong. He now gets a reduction in his weight claim from seven pounds to five pounds – and is quite happy about it. “Actually, on... View the full article

It was a familiar story for Blizzard with a brave but battling fifth in the Takamatsunomiya Kinen as a couple of Japanese sprinters threw down serious credentials for next month’s Chairman’s Sprint Prize at Sha Tin. Godolphin’s Fine Needle (Yuga Kawada) beat Let’s Go Donki (Yasanuri Iwata) in a thrilling finish to the Group One at Chukyo and the result should be enough for both horses to secure an invite to Sha Tin on April 29. Blizzard’s effort was typical of the... View the full article

Let’s Go Donki’s connections are desperate to give their mare another chance in Hong Kong but she needs a big run in the Takamatsunomiya Kinen to earn a place in next month’s Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize at Sha Tin. A slow start ruined Let’s Go Donki’s chances in the Group One Hong Kong Sprint but a closer look reveals her unplaced effort was much better than it looked on paper. Let’s Go Donki may have been outpaced early but her final 800m and... View the full article

The John Size-trained Unicron Jewellery has been a model of consistency and gets the right draw and the right set-up to get his reward in Sunday’s 18 Districts Cup (1,600m) at Sha Tin. Unicron Jewellery (Joao Moreira) has won three times from his 13 career starts and has been even more solid this season as a five-year-old, with six starts for two wins and two placings, all of them over this distance. As a four-year-old in his first campaign, the gelding had looked to struggle to hold his... View the full article