Month: February 2008

Galsaem beaten by Hongji – Seoul Racing Review

Seoul Racing Review – February 17
Galsaem (Cho Kyoung Ho), bidding for her 17th win, came up short in today’s feature race at Seoul Race Park finishing third behind Hongji (Jung Ki Young) and the 8 year old Flying Cat (Oh Kyoung Hoan). Galsaem had eased out to 2.3 at the start and 3.2 second favourite Gi Ra Seong (Choi Beom Hyun) leapt out the stalls to take an early lead which he held onto for much of the race. Hongji, at 10.1 hit the front as they entered the home straight and never looked like losing it, finishing a length ahead of Flying Cat, which just edged out Galsaem for second place by a neck.

Cho Kyoung Ho had better luck on a favourite earlier in the day as one of the biggest certainties of the year so far came home in the shape of Samsimnyeonsarang in race 8. A class above anything else in the race, the filly won by seven lengths with a starting price of just 1.2. An equally short priced winner was Donghae Winner (Jung Ki Young) in race 4. Another impressive performance came in race 9 as Seoul Taekgeup (Moon Jung Kyun) won by 5 lengths ahead of a field including the likes of Erectus and Crocap. Aside from Galsaem’s defeat, upset of the day came in race 7 where the exacta paid out 423.0 for winner Magic Victor (Lee Joon Cheol) and runner-up Baram Queen (Nozomu Tomizawa) to finish in that order in a blanket finish that saw the first 9 horses across the line within 4 lengths of each other.

In terms of jockeys, Moon Se Young and Cho Kyoung Ho had a winner each while Jung Ki Young and Woo Chang Gu each scored a double. It was a cold afternoon with the temperature hovering both sides of zero and a strong south- easterly wind blowing. More of the same is expected tomorrow, when there are 11 more races, with the first getting underway at 11:20am.

FULL RESULTS CLICK HERE

Busan Racing Review – February 15

Racing returned to Korea this afternoon with 9 races at Busan. The main race was an extremely open handicap with a surprise winner in Widaehan Bonneung (10.4) winning by 7 lengths ahead of All That Rush (7.6). Perfect Champ went off third favourite but finished well down the field in seventh – two places ahead of eventual favourite Pilseung Bonghwa. In other races, it was a mixture of odds-on favourites and outsiders. Miss Ecton won the day’s second biggest race at 1.8 and the day’s longest priced winner was Jeorin Jiyong at 27.0 in race 5. Racing returns to Busan Race Park on Sunday at 13:00.

FULL RESULTS CLICK HERE

Seoul Racing Preview – February 16 & 17

The weekend’s racing gets underway at Seoul Race Park at 11:20 on Saturday morning, the start of a 12 race card. Highlight is race 11 at 17:20 which sees Galsaem (16 wins from 27 starts) going up against Baekpa and old-stager Flying Cat in a 1900 meter handicap worth 43Million won.

While Saturday looks to be the best of the two days in terms of schedule and quality, Sunday’s card also offers some interesting prospects with 11 races also starting at 11:20 but with two 1 hour breaks in the afternoon. Subsidy runs in race 10 – the former horse of the year wasn’t fit last time out but could be back in form this time. There is also racing at Jeju both days with nine races starting at 12:20 and a six race card on Sunday at Busan starting at 12:40. Weather at all three tracks should be cold but clear and dry.

Busan Racing Preview – February 15

After taking last weekend off, racing is back this week and we start  on Friday afternoon with a valuable nine race card at Busan Race Park. As usual, the action gets underway at 1pm and culminates in a 42Million won race at 5:10pm where Perfect Champ will bid for his sixth win from eleven starts in an 1800 metre handicap. Busan will put on a further card on Sunday and Seoul and Jeju will, as usual run on both Saturday and Sunday.

Jockey Profile – The “foreigners”

The Korea Racing Authority has made much of its plans to “internationalize” horse racing in Korea. Part of its plans extend to international jockeys. Each November, Seoul Race Park hosts the “International Jockey’s Challenge” where a group of international jockeys come for the weekend to compete in races against the locals, won in 2007 by South African Gerrit Schlechter. In mid 2007, the KRA made a rare update to the English language section of its website and advertised for foreign jockeys to apply for a one year contract at Seoul Race Park. This wasn’t the first time they had done this – when Busan Race Park opened in 2005, three Australian jockeys were signed up to ride, one of whom – Garry Baker – went on to become one of the track’s top riders in his two year stay. As of May 2008, there are three overseas jockeys riding in Korea:

Ikuyasu Kurakane: Ikuyasu debuted in July 2007 and has gone on to become one of the most frequent riders at Seoul. Before coming to Seoul, the 32 year old was riding at the Kochi track in Japan. As of May 2008, Ikuyasu has had 498 rides with 40 winners – a strike rate of 8.0% and a place strike rate of 14.1%. He also has a big race win under his belt having been successful on Pilseung Giwon in the 67Million won Nonghyup Bank Cup last November, an especially impressive win as he had taken a heavy fall in the race immediately beforehand. Ikuyasu has a personal blog which although infrequently updated has some interesting pictures of his early days in Korea. Here he is winning the Nonghyup Bank Cup.

Nozomu Tomizawa: The second Japanese jockey at Seoul Race Park is 26 year old Nozomu Tomizawa. Making his debut in August 2007, Nozi has 17 winners from 329 rides (5.2%) and a place strike rate of 12.8% (May 2008). Before coming to Korea, he rode on the East Coast of Australia for 5 years amassing 65 winners from 1362 rides according to Virtual Formguide.

Danny Craven: Arriving in November 2007 on a 6 month contract was Australian jockey Danny Scott Craven. At 33, Craven arrived with a career already stretching back 17 years with his most recent Australian figures showing 115 winners from 1316 rides in the last 4 years. He made the best possible start, winning on Luxury Queen on his first day’s racing and went on to record 5 winners from 113 rides at Seoul – a win strike rate of 5.3% and a place rate of 7.7%. In April 2008, he relocated to Busan Race Park and recorded his first win at the Gyeongnam track on board Power Captain on May 10, 2008. Here is his debut win at Seoul on Luxury Queen.

Towards the end of 2007, the KRA recorded a special feature on the three overseas riders for their in-house broadcasting service. Click here to see the video.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Racing takes a break for the end of the lunar new year holiday this weekend so there are no cards to preview today. Instead, I’ve taken the opportunity to belatedly update full results from Seoul last weekend and will be continuing our jockey profiles series with a look at the overseas riders currently racing at Seoul. Racing will resume at Busan next Friday – to tide things over until then, here’s a thirty minute review from Korean TV of last Saturday’s 12 race card at Seoul including Bally Brae’s easy victory.

Moon & Cho go level

Jockey’s Championship
Moon Se Young and Cho Kyoung Ho are level after the fourth weekend of the year. Moon followed up his four winners on Saturday with a winless Sunday but Saturday’s exploits were enough to catch up Cho on 15 winners. There’s then a big gap down to Yoon Dae Keun in third. Forty-one jockeys have now had winners in 2008 so far. Among those with their first winners of the year over last weekend were Shim Seung Tae, Lee Dong Kook – with a double on Sunday – and Nozomu Tomizawa.

1=. Cho Kyoung Ho, Moon Se Young 15

3. Yoon Dae Keun 7

4. Park Tae Jong 6

5=. Choi Beom Hyun, Ikuyasu Kurakane, Kim Hey Sung 4

Racing Review – Sunday February 3

Neocheon returned to form to land the 39Million won feature race at Seoul Race Park this afternoon. Ridden by Woo Chang Gu, the 9.4 third favourite led from the start to win by a head from Seonju Jangsu (Kim Ok Sung). Strong odds-on favourite Good Day (Jeon Duk Young), finished a length back in fourth.

Favourite Mujeok Gangho (2,5) took the day’s second most valuable race under Park Soo Hong and there were two wins each for jokceys Kim Hey Sung and Lee Dong Kook, the latter’s second being a storming finish on Gamdongui Sungan (10.8) in race 6 with Lee making up five places in the final furlong to win by nearly a length at the line.

The richest race of the day, however, was at Busan Race Park where top weight and hot favourite Golding finished strongly under Gu Young Jun to take the 43Million won prize.

Click here for full results from Seoul.

Seoul Racing Review – Saturday February 2

Bally Brae comfortably lived up to expectations and won Saturday’s feature race at Seoul Race Park by five lengths ahead of Namchonui Bit. Despite a clobbering from the handicapper resulting in Bally Brae carrying 61.5 kilograms – 8kg more than his closest rival – Moon Se Young guided the six year old 2007 Grand Prix winner home without breaking a sweat.

On a beautiful sunny day at Seoul, the above average Saturday crowd saw Moon Se Young end the day with four winners to overturn and go two clear of Cho Kyoung Ho at the top of the jockey’s table with Cho recording 2 winners today. Boo Min Ho recorded his second career win with victory on Arctic Time in race 5.

There was also racing at Jeju today with most races run in heavy snow. The day’s feature race was won by the 4.7 co-favourite Cheonwangsa. However, the weather on Jeju played havoc with both odds and results.

Busan Racing Review – February 1

Bugyeong Choegang (Gu Young Jun) won today’s feature race at Busan. The 1.7 favourite finished a length ahead on Myeongmun Jepae (Cho Chan Hoon) at 3.8. Only one other favourite on the nine race card was successful – Sunday Punch at 2.7 in race 6. Racing returns to Busan on Sunday.

Full results to follow…