With less than four months to the end of the racing season, the heat is on for the fight of the champion apprentice jockey title, but despite the pressure, apprentice jockey Wong Chin Chuen is striving to outdo himself more than anything else.
ndentured to David Hill, Wong is currently on the top of the log with 22 winners, just three winners ahead of fellow apprentice jockey Zawari Razali (19 winners). The pair has figured prominently in the premiership since the start of this year, but the pace has hotted up after Mark Walker’s apprentice jockey Zawari bagged six winners in June to close the gap between them.
While Wong (Evertrust) and Zawari (Mighty Conqueror) both scored one win each for their masters last Friday, times look a little tougher for Wong as he prepares to serve his ban of four race meetings (August 21 to September 8), for two charges of careless riding aboard Oxbow Sun and Sun Seeker last weekend.
The 23-year-old said he would keep an eye on his rival’s rides for the week all in the name of healthy competition at Kranji, but added that if there was anyone to beat, he is all about outdoing himself on his total score of 31 winners in 2016.
“I don’t really look at how Zawari rides in the races, but I do look at the race cards to see how many rides he has, and how many good chances there are,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.
“Right now, I am only leading by three winners, so there is definitely pressure in terms of defending my title.
“There is about four more months left, but I think my greatest opponent is still myself, so I hope I can do better than what I have achieved last year.
“I will miss out on four meetings next week onwards, so I hope I can do my best to get some winners this week.”
The Penang-born rider has six rides (Cavatina, Lam Edition, Oxbow Sun, Urban Legend, Sure Win and Legendary Sun) on Friday, and four rides (Nicator, Northern Sun, Sun Seeker and Laser Storm) on Sunday after Battle Of Troy was scratched, twice the amount of rides Zawari commands (four on Friday and one on Sunday) this weekend.
Amongst them, the Bruce Marsh-trained Laser Storm, a seven-year-old son of Lucky Owners, came close at big odds at his last run with Wong aboard in the Korea Racing Authority Trophy race over 1200m, running second behind the winner Distinctive Darci.
Wong is hopeful for a good run in the $100,000 Open Benchmark 97 race over 1200m on the Polytrack this Sunday.
“Laser Storm is coming back from a short let-up, and has been working and trialling well (ran second in a trial on Tuesday behind Supernova),” said Wong who has partnered Laser Storm to one win in a Kranji Stakes A race over the same distance to dead-heat with Super Winner in August last year.
“I did a few gallops with the horse after his last run and he has maintained his condition, so I am very happy with the horse, and I think he should run a good race.”
The Warplan Racing Stable-owned gelding also has Korea’s international race in his sights as connections has accepted the invitation to run in the 700 million won Group 1 Keeneland Korea Sprint (1200m) in Seoul on September 10. The inaugural edition of the race was won by the Tony Millard-trained Hong Kong sprinter Super Jockey, ridden by jockey Karis Teetan last year.
“Of course, I hope I can be the one to sit on him when he goes to Korea,” said Wong who rode the Desmond Koh-trained Order Of The Sun in the 1 billion Won (S$1.2 million) Group 1 Keeneland Korea Cup (1800m) - which was the other international race on the programme last year - but ran second-last to Japan’s Chrysolite.
Other than Laser Storm, trainer James Peters will most likely have his first overseas runner in Wimbledon under his banner, as they too have accepted the invitation to run in the same race.
