When Australian Garry Baker left Busan at the end of 2007, the track was, for the first time in its short history, without any international jockeys on its roster. Not for long, however, as January 24, 2008 saw the debut of Soo Khoon Beng for a short stint at the track. Born in 1974 in Penang, he raced in Singapore for nine years becoming one of the top jockeys at Kranji, Singapore’s only racetrack. He was champion apprentice in 1997, 1998 and 1999 and in 2005 became Champion Jockey. Also in 2005, he scored the biggest win of his career aboard Terfel in the Singapore Gold Cup. During his career in Singapore he had 2832 rides and scored 380 wins and 342 second places (source-Singapore Turf Club). He returned to Singapore in April after riding 5 winners from 34 rides. Here is his first victory.

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.

With 64 wins in the past year, Cho Kyoung Ho is currently the third most prolific jockey in Korea. Born in 1976 and making his debut in 2001 alongside the likes of Moon Se Young and Yoon Dae Keun, Cho has a career record of 1961 rides with 274 winners – a strike rate of 14%. His place rate is 27.7%. Before 2007, his best year was 2003 when he guided Tempest West to victory in both the JRA Trophy race and the Grand Prix Race. In 2007, he landed three big races, the SBS Cup on NeoCheon in July, The Ilgan Sports Cup on Ganghomyeongjang in September and finally the big one, winning the President’s Cup on Myungmun Gamun in November. It was Cho’s second President’s Cup having won a shock win on outsider French Dancer in 2005. Here is Myungmun Gamun’s (number 9) victory. The horse which leads most of the way before fading in the straight is NeoCheon.

Given her ride today , we might as well make Lee Shin Young the next in our series of jockey profiles. There are currently three female jockeys riding at Seoul. The best known outside racing circles is Lee Ae Li who received a lot of publicity when a movie about a female jockey was released a couple of years ago. Another is Lee Geum Ju, however, she has not ridden for quite some time.  The most successful is Lee Shin Young. Debuting in 2001 (on the same day as Geum Ju, Ae Li debuted a year later) at the age of 21, Shin Young has a record of 72 wins from 674 rides, a strike rate of just over 10% with a place strike rate of 19%. Over the past year she’s maintained her win rate with 12 wins from 113 rides. No doubt a video of today’s race will appear online in due course, but until then, we’ll make do with this effort from 2006.

The jockey with the most rides and most wins in his career is Park Tae Jong. Now 42, Park debuted in 1987 at the old Seoul Race Park. As of the start of 2008, Park has had 8800 rides with 1358 winners – a career strike rate 15.4% and is currently the hardest working jockey in Korea with 526 rides in the past year yielding 96 winners. His place strike rate in 2007 was a remarkable 30.6% with only Moon Se Young recording a better one.

Despite his excellent strike rate, 2007 was the first year since 1998 that Park failed to win any of the year’s big races. Throughout his career he’s won every major race including back-to-back Korean Derbys in 1999 and 2000. Here he is leading from start to finish in a race from October 2007.

There are currently 63 jockeys retained at Seoul Racecourse. Over the next few weeks, Horseracing in Korea will profile some of the leading ones. We may as well start with the man of the moment, Moon, Se Young.

Born in 1980, Moon made his debut shortly before his 21st birthday in 2001. His 7 year career has seen him pick up two Group 3 races, a Group 2 (The Minster of Agriculture Cup in 2004), the JRA Trophy and most recently, the Group 1 Grand Prix race in December 2007. However, it’s his strike rate rather than his big race wins that set him apart at the moment. As of Janaury 2008, he has 1485 career rides with 230 winners – a strike rate of 15.5%. He’s getting better too. In the last year alone the figures are 381 rides and 74 winners – a strike rate of 19.4% with 33% of all his rides placing. Moon is potentially the dominant jockey of the next decade in Korea. He’s also the jockey first out of the stalls riding number 8 in our banner at the top of this page! Here he is winning the 2007 Grand Prix on Bally Brae.