Happy Year of the Horse! Racing returns next weekend.
Month: January 2014
Lermyte Looking For Busan Success
The lot of a foreign jockey here is not an easy one. And it’s especially not easy if there are 3 other foreign jockeys ahead of you when you arrive.
Jerome Lermyte (KRA)
However, one French jockey is trying to overcome those odds. Jerome Lermyte made his Korean debut at the beginning of November last year.
While on first inspection his bottom-line figures of 2 wins since then do not seem especially impressive, new light is shed on them when it is considered that those 2 wins have come from just 22 rides and that he’s found the money with 10 of those.
The 24-year-old Lermyte started his apprenticeship in France in 2006, winning the apprentice championship the following year.
In Europe, Lermyte has ridden in Germany, Spain and Switzerland as well as riding 20 winners in a 6-month stint in Macau and 15 during 3 months in Qatar.
In total he has over 300 career winners, 20 of them coming in group or listed races.
Lermyte’s first Korean winner came for Peter Wolsley at the end of December but it is his 2nd, which was last Friday at Busan that may be more significant. That win came on the first Korean runner for South African trainer Bart Rice who Lermyte is set to act as jockey for.
It was a good ride, with the French rider getting the better of Darryll Holland in a tight finish. He’s going to need plenty more of those to help the Rice stable get established. For both jockey and trainer, February is looking like an important month.
Holland & Wolsley Clean-Up At Busan
The emerging combination of Australian trainer Peter Wolsley and British jockey Darryll Holland was in top-form on Friday with the pair combining for 4 winners at Busan.
Darryll Holland weighed in a winner for Peter Wolsley 4 times on Friday
It looked for a time that South African trainer Bart Rice’s debut winner was going to be the story of the day among Busan’s foreign contingent.
However, Wolsley and Holland took over, winning race 5 with 11/1 Never Seen Before (Ecton Park), race 6 with even-money favourite Bulpae Dongja (Purge) and race 7 with 2/1 favourite Cinderella Man (Southern Image), the latter an 8-length stroll.
They weren’t finished either as they returned to take race 10, with 8/1 Gaseumeuro (Pico Central) getting the better of a very tight finish with the Masa Tanaka ridden Sea Monster.
With Wolsley’s stable jockey Jo Sung Gon in Macau for the first few months of 2014, the Wolsley, Holland partnership is one that will be watched closely – by punters and rivals.
Yesterday’s wins took Holland to the top of the 2014 Busan Jockey Chaampionship with 10. Wolsley is joint-top of the trainers’ table with 7 alongside Kim Young Kwan.
* In Friday’s feature race at Busan, there was a welcome return to the winner’s circle for Gyeongbudaero (Menifee).
The 2012 KRA Cup Mile winner was 6th in the Grand Prix Stakes on his last outing in December and out-battled US import Donggeupchoegang (Bernstein) – to who he was conceding 7 kilos – to win the 1900M class 1 event by a nose.
South African Trainer Bart Rice Debuts With Winner
Bart Rice, who arrived in Korea at the end of last autumn, finally sent out a runner at Busan Race Park on Friday afternoon and he fond immediate success as that runner, Gyeongnam Sinhwa, won race 3.
Debut winner: Bart Rice (KRA)
The 37-year-old, who is the 3rd foreign trainer to be licensed in Korea, has put together a string of 22 horses since his arrival although – no fault of the trainer – they appear to be in varying states of race-readiness.
US import Gyeongnam Sinhwa (Keyed Entry) was himself making his racecourse debut and after being sent off at odds of 8/1, landed victory by a length under French jockey Jerome Lermyte, who was himself scoring only his 2nd win in Korea.
Rice’s other 2 runners on Friday were unplaced but his 33.3% strike rate will stand for some time. He doesn’t have any entires on Sunday and racing takes a break next weekend for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Indian Blues For Watts Village
Watts Village scored an unforgettable victory in Tokyo last November but found himself brought back down to Earth this afternoon as he was handed a defeat on his season re-appearance at Seoul Race Park.
Indian Blue & Ikuyasu Kurakane (Pic: Ross Holburt)
And it was a horse ridden by a Japanese jockey that did for him as Ikuyasu Kurakane guided Indian Blue (Henny Hughes), 4th in the Grand Prix Stakes last month, to victory by a length.
On board Watts Village, Seo Seung Un tried to repeat the same tactic that served him so well in the Japanese capital and headed straight for the front. By contrast, Kurakane took Indian Blue right to the back.
There was a key difference this afternoon though as they were racing over 7 furlongs as opposed to 6 in Tokyo and this time Watts Village just couldn’t hold on. Once Indian Blue got into the gear in the home straight, it was just a matter of time and she swept by inside the final 50 metres.
Indian Blue was recording just her 4th win in 14 starts, however, she’s only been outside the money on 2 occasions and has shown she can claim prizes at distances ranging from 1000-2300 metres. It seems the best is still to come for her. As for Watts Village, now that a trip to Dubai is off the table, he’ll be back. He still looks very difficult to beat at sprint distances.
Despite being beaten on Watts Village, the day was by no means a write-off for Seo Seung Un. One race earlier, the jockey guided filly Cheonnyeon Dongan (Ecton Park) to a comfortable victory in the first of the 2 co-feature races.
Now entering her 4-year-old season, Cheonnyeon Dongan was 4th in last year’s Korean Oaks but followed it up with back-to-back Stakes wins in the Dong-a Ilbo Trophy and NACF Chairman’s Cup. Today made for her 3rd straight win and her first against class 1 mixed company.
Down at Busan, it was another successful day for Darryll Holland. The British jockey now lies in joint 1st-place with Joe Fujii in the Busan Jockey Championship after victory on promising US import K Teryus (Not For Love) in race 5. Holland is yet to draw a blank at a single meeting in 2014.
Holland couldn’t score in the feature race though (not having a ride in it didn’t help) as Choi Si Dae guided High Five (Creek Cat) to a 3-length victory from My Key (Macho Uno).
Next weekend is the last before racing takes a short break for the lunar New Year holiday. As such, a number of big names are expected to be in action, especially at Busan where beaten Grand Prix runners Beolmaui Kkum and Gyeongbudaero are entered.
Weekend Race Times
The weekend’s racing got underway at Busan today – Joe Fujii and Darryll Holland both riding winners – and there’s plenty more to come on Saturday and Sunday.
Watts Village returns to Seoul on Sunday
Perhaps the most interesting entry is that of Watts Village in the very last race at Seoul on Sunday.
The US import won the Japan vs Korea Challenge at Ohi in Tokyo last November having earlier run second in the corresponding race in Seoul.
That first performance earned him a rating qualifying him to run at the Dubai Carnival, however, his entry here means that’s now off the table.
He’ll line up as favourite in a race over 7-furlongs which also sees a number of also-rans from last months Grand Prix Stakes make a big drop back in distance to try their luck.
Here’s what’s happening when and where.
Saturday January 18
Seoul Race Park: 12 races from 11:00 to 18:00
Jeju Race Park: 9 races from 12:30 to 17:30
Sunday January 19
Seoul Race Park: 11 races from 11:00 to 18:00
Busan Race Park: 6 races from 12:50 to 17:00
Korean Classic Winners Speedy First & Major King In USA For 2014 Campaign
Korean Derby and Oaks winner Speedy First and Minister’s Cup winner Major King are in the United States where they will be trained and raced for at least the first part of the year.
Stateside: Korean Derby and Oaks winner Speedy First
The pair, who between them won 3 of the 4 Korean Classic races in 2013, arrived at JFK Airport last week and are currently in quarantine. They are then expected to transfer to Laurel Park in Maryland to enter training.
Speedy First [Menifee – Speedy Deedy (Victory Gallop)] is a 4-year-old filly who has won 6 of her 10 starts to date. In May last year, she became the 5th filly to win the Korean Derby and added another classic in August with a comfortable win in the Oaks at Busan.
Major King [Pico Central – Still Golden (Gold Fever)] was third in the Derby, but had his revenge in the Minister’s Cup, the final leg of the Triple Crown when he scored a 2-length win. An out of sorts Speedy First finishing last that day.
He might have fluffy ears, but Major King is a Classic winner. he is also in the US
Neither finished the 2013 season especially strongly, Speedy First slumping to another defeat in the Gyeongnam Governor’s Cup while Major King was an also ran in the President’s Cup, the effects of a long season being blamed for both.
They are by no means the first Korea bred horses to run Stateside. In 2008, a horse called Pick Me Up went to the US and ran – extremely unsuccessfully – at Charles Town, Laurel and Delaware Park. A year later, 2007 Korean Oaks winner Baekpa also went across and ran similarly poorly.
That prompted the Korea Racing Authority to change their approach a little and to send a small group of yearlings and 2-year-olds to Florida each year in the hope of proving their belief that it wasn’t necessarily that Korean-bred horses could compete if trained the same way as their American counterparts.
They got their reward when Feel So Good won a race at Calder in September 2012. Now they’ve decided to try again with established horses.
If all goes to plan, Speedy First and Major King will make their American debuts in April. We’ll be following their progress.
Speedy First winning the 2013 Korean Derby
Major King winning the 2013 Minister’s Cup
Fly Top Queen’s Crown Slips Again
Fly Top Queen stumbled to her first defeat on Korean soil after a lacklustre run alowed Xicar to grab an unlikely victory at Seoul Race Park this afternoon.
Fly Top Queen is trotted up for the vet after finishing 5th
Korea’s most expensive ever imported racehorse had, after a year of injury problems, breezed through 4 consecutive wins last summer and autumn without breaking into a gallop before being sent to Japan to compete in the Japan vs Korea challenge at Ohi in November.
Fly Top Queen (Henny Hughes) disappointed there but few expected her to have any problems upon her return to Seoul against what was a less than impressive class 2 line-up over 1700 metres. She was sent off as the odds-on favourite and looked to be fully worth that as she entered the home straight in front and pulling away.
Then, with just over a furlong to go, she stalled. Jockey Cho Kyoung Ho, standing in for the suspended Park Tae Jong, quickly realised there was nothing left in the tank and could do nothing as the chasing pack swept by.
In the end it was Xicar (Written Tycoon) took the win. The 5-year-old Australian mare looked quite a talent when she first appeared on the scene in 2011, winning 3 of her first 6 races. She then went on to lose 15 in a row until today, almost exactly 2 years since she was last victorious, she found herself back in the winner’s circle.
As for Fly Top Queen, the vet found nothing obvious wrong with her. She’s undoubtedly one of the finest bred and most naturally gifted of horses to ever run here but as we knew from the year it took her to be ready to run after arriving, she’s not the soundest. Hopefully her best isn’t behind her already.
Class 2 – Seoul Race Park – 1700M – January 11, 2014
1. Xicar (AUS) [Written Tycoon – Grand Jewel (Brocco)] – Jang Chu Youl
2. Stan The Cameraman (USA) [With Distinction – Always On The Go (Lord Carson)] – Fausto Durso
3. Socheonha (NZ) [Duelled – Interdame (Senior Pete)] – Kim Hye Sun
Distances: 0.5 lengths/1.5 lengths – 11 ran
Weekend Preview: Fly Top Queen, Gamdonguibada Headline At Seoul & Busan
The weekend’s racing got underway at Busan today but there’s still plenty to keep us occupied on Saturday and Sunday.
Fly Top Queen is back home and will be favourite to get her fifth straight win on Korean…sand
Fly Top Queen (Henny Hughes) is the most expensive racehorse ever imported to Korea. She won all 4 of her domestic starts last year before heading to Tokyo to take part in the 2nd-leg of the Korea vs Japan Challenge at Ohi in November.
She didn’t quite live up to expectations that night, but she’s back in Korea now and will be the heavy favourite to get back to winning ways in race 10 at Seoul on Saturday, a class 2 test over 1700 metres.
Sunday at Busan sees a quick return to action for Gamdonguibada (Werblin). The 2012 Grand Prix Stakes winner failed to successfully defend her title in Seoul last month and has a tough ask on her season-debut as a 5-year-old, carrying over 60kg in the class 1 race 6.
The ever-reliable Lion Santa and Viva Ace are among those she’ll be giving weight to in the 10-furlong feature race.
Both Gamdonguibada and Fly Top Queen will have new jockeys this weekend with Lim Sung Sil and Cho Kyoung Ho replacing the suspended pair of Joe Fujii and Park Tae Jong.
Here’s what’s happening when and where:
Saturday January 11
Seoul Race Park: 12 races from 11:00 to 18:00
Jeju Race Park: 9 races from 12:30 to 17:30
Sunday January 12
Seoul Race Park: 11 races from 11:00 to 18:00
Busan Race Park: 6 races from 12:50 to 17:30
He’s Gon! Top Busan Jockey Jo In Macau For 6 Months
Jo Sung Gon has been granted a 6-month license to ride in Macau. The reigning champion jockey at Busan Race Park will have his first rides at Taipa this weekend.
Going…going…Jo Sung Gon is Macau bound
31-uear-old Jo has won more races at Busan than any other jockey, with 480 since the track opened and has a career quinella strike-rate of 27%.
Jo’s big race wins include the Korean Derby in 2009 on Sangseung Ilro and the Korean Oaks in 2012 on Rising Glory, although he’s best known for his partnership with the recently retired Dangdae Bulpae, on who he won a Minsister’s Cup and 3 consecutive President’s Cups.
Most recently, Jo has been stable jockey to Australian trainer Peter Wolsley. He follows on from Seoul’s champion jockey Moon Se Young who also had a stint in Macau this time last year.
Jo will debut this Sunday with rides in six of the seven races on the card, including two for Korean trainer Seo Beom Seok who since the middle of last year has been simultaneously operating stables at both Seoul and Taipa.
Horse Racing in Korea 