Author: allymid1

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…

Seoul Racing Preview – February 2

Bally Brae, winner of the 2007 Grand Prix race last December, returns to the track in Saturday’s feature race. Moon Se Young will partner the 6 year old in race 11, off at 17:20, over 1900 metres.  Bally Brae has a record of 11 wins from his 18 races and despite dropping down in distance, should be clear favourite here.  There are 12 races at Seoul on Saturday with the first under orders at 11:20 and the last at 17:50.  There are also 9 races at Jeju, getting underway at 12:20.

Busan Racing Preview – Friday February 1

The week’s racing gets underway at Busan at 13:00 on Friday afternoon, the beginning of a nine-race card. As usual the feature race is the last, an 1800 metre at handicap at 17:10 for foreign bred runners with 13 declared and a winning prize of 34Million won. There will be racing at Seoul and Jeju on Saturday & Sunday and Busan again on Sunday before racing takes a week off for Lunar New Year.

Jockey’s Championship – Cho overtakes Moon

Five winners over the weekend for Cho Kyoung Ho saw him overtake Moon Se Young at the top of the 2008 table. Cho’s wins included a true hat-trick in races 6,7 and 8 on Saturday and victory on Myeongmun Gamun in the weekend’s big race to move onto 12 this year.  Moon had a winner each day and is one back on 11. There’s then a gap of five back to third placed Yoon Dae Keun. There were first wins for 2008 for Shim Seung Tae and Woo Chang Gu.

1. Cho Kyoung Ho 12

2. Moon Se Young 11

3. Yoon Dae Keun 6

4. Park Tae Jong 5

Seoul Racing Review – Sunday January 27

Myeongmun Gamun didn’t disappoint in the feature race at Seoul Race Park this afternoon. Under Cho Kyung Ho, the President’s Cup holder went off 1.6 favourite and returned three lengths ahead of Gayansanseong (Kim Hey Sung) and Best Condition (Moon Se Young) the second and third favourites in the 2000 metre 34Million won handicap.

It was a beautiful day in the winter sunshine and just like yesterday, it was a day for outsiders. The longest priced winner was Rich Family in race 7, coming in at 45.4. Other long priced winners included the aptly named Miracle Winner at 19.8 in race 8. The day’s second most valuable race was race 11, won by Aegis Ham (Yang Hee Jin) at 5.9.

There were also six races at Busan, the feature race being the last won by Procyon (Chae Kyu Jun), the 4.4 second favourite.

FULL RESULTS FROM SEOUL CLICK HERE

FULL RESULTS FROM BUSAN CLICK HERE

FULL RESULTS FROM JEJU TO FOLLOW…