Jockey Profiles

Akane is Famous!

Japanese Racing TV has produced a feature on jockey Akane Yamamoto as she comes to the end of her first year riding at Busan.

It’s all in Japanese but well worth a look both for the quintessentially Japanese graphics at the beginning and also for the trackwork shots of Busan:

*h/t @uk_maniax

Before coming to Korea, Kyoto-native Yamamoto had a spell riding in New Zealand.

In Korea for being the current jockey of Mister Park, who last year set a Korean record of 17 consecutive wins. She has won twice on him and rode him to second-place behind Tough Win and ahead of Smarty Moonhak in last year’s Grand Prix Stakes at Seoul Racecourse.

Her total record in Korea to date is 34 wins from her total 217 rides.

Kim Gui Bae – Rare Visit To The Winner’s Circle Thirty Three Years After His First

Korea’s oldest professional Sportsman – except for a few veteran golfers – was back in the Winner’s Circle at Seoul Race Park today. However, in recent years, winning has been an all too rare experience for veteran jockey Kim Gui Bae.

Winner Again: Kim Gui Bae

Today, partnering 23/1 outsider Haetal (Volponi) in race 8, Kim produced his horse for a late run to sweep past odds-on favourite Something Good (Forest Camp) to score victory by just over a length.

It was the 49 year old’s first win of 2012. He scored seven wins in 2011 and the same number the year before. If past history is anything to go by, he’s unlikely to exceed that figure this year; those two years were his most successful out of the past twenty.

When Kim Gui Bae turned professional as a teenager in April 1979, President Park Chung Hee was in the final year of his authoritarian regime (Park would be assassinated in October that year) and horse racing in Korea was almost a different sport to what it is today. There was no Stud Book, no private ownership of horses and the pari-mutuel odds were still calculated manually for each race.

Kim Gui Bae started his career well and, throughout the 1980’s, was one of the top jockeys at the old Seoul Racecourse at Ttukseom. His biggest win came in 1986 on Po Gyeong Seon [Danseur Etoile-Leonotis (Lionhearted)] as the great New Zealand bred gelding captured his second consecutive Grand Prix Stakes. Kim rode him to six of his twenty career victories.

On that day, the jockey can’t have imagined that twenty-five years later, he would not only still be riding, but also still searching for a second Stakes win. Kim himself points to Seoul Racecourse moving from Ttukseom to Gwacheon in 1989 as being the moment his career changed for the worse. Indeed, he’s only ridden just over fifty winners at the new track over the past 23 years.

Blurry: Korean racing photography wasn't so great back in the days when Kim Gui Bae won the 1986 Grand Prix on Po Gyeong Seon

In an interview for the KRA in 2010, Kim said he never made the adjustment from racing clockwise at Ttukseom to anti-clockwise at Gwacheon. It seems a rather incredible, not to mention disappointing, excuse but the figures certainly agree with him.

Over the years his opportunities have slowly died up as new jockeys come through. When asked why he kept going instead of making more of an effort to pass the trainers’ exam and move into the barn (something which is also likely to be too late now), he simply replied that it is because he “enjoys riding.”

Despite this, Kim Gui Bae is not a jockey that punters avoid (and there are some). He can generally be relied upon to get a horse its best possible finish and its odds don’t drift because he’s riding it. Over his career, his win rate is 8.4% and longevity has made him popular; today he was welcomed back to the winner’s circle by a small group of old-time punters.

Of the current jockeys, only Park Tae Jong, Shin Hyoung Chul and Jung Pyeong Soo also rode at Ttukseom and Kim has at least eight years on all of them. While the newest generation of jockeys are undoubtedly better, there will be those who will be sad when the familiar racing colours of these four (Korean jockeys race in their own colours) disappear from the Korean track forever.

* Today’s feature race was won by second favourite Real Victor (Biwa Shinseiki-Hyunmo), scoring his second class 1 victory of the year.

* Yesterday at Busan, Lion Santa (Lion Heart-Santa Fe Strip) got back to winning ways after losing his unbeaten record at the end of last year. The four-year old US import took a two length win in the feature race and now has ten wins from eleven starts.

Sunday February 12

Seoul Race Park: 11 races from 11:00 to 17:40
Busan Race Park: 8 races from 11:50 to 16:40

Champion Jockey Over The Moon Again

Moon Se Young Wins Seoul Jockey Championship While Jo Sung Gon is the Stand-Out Winner at Busan

Moon Se Young has regained the title of Champion jockey at Seoul Race Park. The 31 year-old took the honour in 2008 and looked set to dominate for the forseeable future but a fall in 2009 and a lengthy suspension towards the end of last season saw him lose out until now. Even this time, injury saw him miss the final week of the season, allowing nearest – and only rival, Cho Kyoung Ho to close the gap at the top to just five wins.

Champion again: Moon Se Young

With Jo In Kwen in third place in only his third full season, the weighing room at Seoul is becoming ever more competitive. Kim Hae Sun becomes the first female rider to finish the season in the top ten and looks set to become go on to become a top-tier jockey.

Just outside the top ten, in eleventh place, was Jang Chu Yeol, who would surely have finished higher had he not recently spent six weeks in the USA where he became the first Korean-based jockey to ride a winner. He’ll be one to watch next year.

Also to watch will be Seo Seung Un who landed 12 wins in his first three months as a licensed jockey – a record. While Moon Se Young is on top at the moment, the next few seasons look sure to see a real changing of the guard in the winners’ circle.

Seoul Racecourse Jockey Championship 2011

1. Moon Se Young – 105
2. Cho Kyoung Ho – 100
3. Jo In Kwen – 70
4. Park Tae Jong – 68
5. Choi Bum Hyun – 61
6. Jung Ki Yong – 48
7. Oh Kyoung Hoan – 45
8. Moon Jung Kyun – 45
9. Shin Hyoung Chul – 38
10. Kim Hae Sun – 29

While the future looks very bright at Seoul, it’s difficult to say the same for Busan where the young jockeys coming through do not look to be of the same calibre. However, that takes nothing away from champion Jo Sung Gon who breezed to the title. Jo is head and shoulders above any other Korean rider at Busan although if the combined winners this year of Toshio Uchida (58) and his replacement Nathan Stanley (17) are taken into account, the foreigners ran him close (more on the foreign riders next week).

Jo Sung Gon was the runaway winner of the Busan Jockey Title

Life at Busan is pretty comfortable for him but Jo has previously indicated a desire to come to Seoul where he would face more competition for the big rides. An exchange program was mooted earlier this year and Cho Kyoung Ho was reportedly interested in going in the other direction. Nothing came of it but it is something that looks likely to be revisited in 2012.

Behind him Chae Gyu Jun had a solid season which included two big Stakes wins at Seoul while Kim Dong Young had a breakout year in third. You Hyun Myung’s season was disrupted by injury but he still ended in fourth, while fifth placed Park Geum Man ended the year reunited with former boss Peter Wolsley and if this continues in 2012, he may well have a better year:

Busan Racecourse Jockey Championship 2011

1. Jo Sung Gon – 84
2. Chae Gyu Jun – 66
3. Kim Dong Young – 55
4. You Hyun Myung – 49
5. Park Geum Man – 47
6. Choi Si Dae – 44
7. Lim Sung Sil – 28
8. Akane Yamamoto – 28
9. Jo Chang Wook – 27
10. Jo Chan Hoon – 22

The pony colony on Jeju Island saw the closest race of the three tracks and ultimately it was veteran rider Kim Yong Seob who came out on top:

Jeju Racecourse Jockey Championship 2011

1. Kim Yong Seob – 63
2. Jang Woo Sung – 60
3. Jeon Hyun Joon – 55
4. Hwang Tae Sun – 49
5. Moon Jung Ho – 45

Foreign Jockeys Dominate Friday At Busan

Akane Yamamoto & Nathan Stanley Score Five Between Them

It was a bad day for the local Jockey Union at Busan Race Park this afternoon as between them, two of the track’s foreign riders hoovered up five of the ten races on the card.

Nathan Stanley: Feature race winner today

Australian Nathan Stanley and Japanese Akane Yamamoto have established themselves as, political issues aside, two of the most sought-after riders at the track and today, on a chilly afternoon, they showed why. Yamamoto started things off, winning race 2 on young colt Predict (The Groom Is Red), who put in an impressive performance winning by seven lengths.

She followed up two races later on 16/1 shot Silver Tiger (Volponi), beating out Stanley on Sangseung Bulpae by a nose. Any punters playing the foreign jockey quinella angle got a 58/1 payout on that finish. Stanley had to wait until race 8 to get in the winner’s circle himself with a four-length win on New Zealand import Dangdae Champ (Falkirk).

The Australian had good reason to hold high hopes of scoring a late treble. Races 9 and 10 would see him partner first Ghost Whisper (Gotham City) and then Secret Whisper (Seas Of Secrets), both owned by Pegasus Stables and trained by Peter Wolsley and both set to be odds-on favourites.

Treble: Akane Yamamoto

It didn’t quite turn out as planned as Yamamoto, on second favourite Baramui Jeonsa (Menifee) pipped Stanley and Ghost Whisper to the line by a length to complete her treble. There were no such problems in the feature race, however, as Secret Whisper did the business, albeit only by a neck, to secure his sixth win from twelve starts. Yamamoto finished a very productive day in third place on filly Night Moves (Proud Accolade).

With their wins today, Stanley moves on to seventeen winners in Korea and Yamamoto twenty-three. While Yamamoto will have a number of opportunities to add to her tally at Busan on Sunday, Stanley will only have one chance in Seoul, where he travels to partner Peter Wolsley’s Nuriui Bit in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup, Korea’s premier Juvenile race. He’ll join Busan’s third foreign jockey, Eiki Nishimura, who is already in the capital preparing for the race.

* Also of note today was the second win in two starts by two-year old colt Baekdu Daejangun (Didyme-Indeed My Dear (Alydeed). Baekdu Daejangun is the half-brother of double President’s Cup winner Dangdae Bulpae.

Korean Jockey Gets First Winner In USA

Seoul based apprentice jockey Jang Chu Yeol, currently in the United States for two months of training, rode his first American winner at Charles Town Racetrack in West Virginia last Sunday.

The young rider partnered the John McKee owned and trained Free Humor [Sharp Humor-Southerncomfortgal (Hermitage)] to victory in the tenth and final race of the day – an 8.5 furlong Claimer worth $11,400. Free Humor was the 4/1 fourth favourite in a field of ten.

Since heading to the States last month, Jang has had 17 rides at Charles Town, mostly for McKee, scoring 2 second places before getting his breakthrough win. At home in Seoul, he stands 11th in the 2011 Jockey Championship with 27 wins this year.

Race Chart

Japanese Jockey Eiki Nishimura Returns To Busan

Japanese jockey Eiki Nishimura is coming back to Busan this weekend on a short-term license after nearly two years away from Korean racing. The 36 year old is best remembered in Korea for winning the KRA Cup Mile – the first leg of the Korean Triple Crown – on the champion filly Sangseung Ilro in 2009.

More of the same? Eiki Nishimura wins the KRA Cup Mile on Sangseung Ilro (Pic: KRA)

In all, Eiki rode 48 winners from 392 rides in his first spell at Busan. He started slowly but made his breakthrough as the regular rider of Sangseung Ilro culminating in her Cup Mile win in April 2009. However, he was mysteriously jocked off the filly for her successful run in the Korean Derby the following month.

Although no-one went record about it (apart from Eiki himself on his Japanese blog at the time), the feeling was that local riders at Busan had been angry about a foreign jockey winning the track’s biggest race of the year. The Jockey Union at Seoul who at the time opposed any foreign involvement in Korean racing were determined this would not happen in the Derby and pressure was applied.

Eiki persevered although he found his opportunities limited before he returned to his home track of Arao in late 2009. An affable and friendly character, he invited Korean jockey Park Jae Ho across to Japan to gain some experience.

Things at Busan are a little different now. After the shockingly bad treatment another Japanese rider, Hitomi Miyahshita received at the hands of the Jockey Union in the aftermath of Park Jin Hee’s death in early 2010, the locals have had another dose of Toshio Uchida winning races and recently of Akane Yamamoto and Australian Nathan Stanley winning Stakes races. As younger Korean jockeys come through, the foreign riders are gradually becoming more accepted and Eiki’s most welcome return is at exactly the right time.

Nishimura has nine rides at Busan across this weekend starting in race 1 on Friday when he’ll be riding for American trainer Joe Murphy. Nathan Stanley has twelve rides on Friday and Sunday most for Peter Wolsley. Akane Yamamoto sits out this week to serve a two-day suspension.

First Female Trainer/Jockey Combo Finds Success

Lee Shin Young & Kim Hae Sun Score Historic Double

Last week we talked about Australian trainer Peter Wolsley and jockey Nathan Stanley who are currently the in-form partnership at Busan. Up at Seoul there is another pair who are less than conventional in Korean terms making headlines. On September 24, trainer Lee Shin Young and Kim Hae Sun became the first female trainer/jockey combination to win two races on the same card.

Winning on the track: Kim Hae Sun

Lee Shin Young was only the third Korean woman to qualify as a jockey and in the July this year became the first ever female trainer. She’s had a remarkable start to her career in the barn. Out of 23 runners from her fourteen-strong string, she’s recorded 6 wins already.

Winning in the barn: Lee Shin Young (Picture: KRA)

She still holds the record for most thoroughbred wins by a female jockey in Korea at 90, however, her record seems almost certain to be eclipsed by the young Kim Hae Sun. Kim qualified in 2009 and has made the most of the opportunities afforded to her to rack up 37 winners already – 28 of them coming in the last year and 4 in the past two weeks.

It’s a record that is better than the two other jockeys in her graduating class, Park Sang Woo and Lee Gi Woong.

On that Saturday a week and a half ago, Lee and Kim combined with debut making US two-year old Belong To John (Belong To Me) at odds of 23/1 and then in the final race of the day on 8/1 Blue Charming (On Fire). Certainly punters will be closely examining any such generous odds on the pair in future.

Young Korean Jockeys Head For Overseas Training

Three young Korean jockeys are heading overseas for two months of training. Kim Jeong Jun and Lee Gang Seo left for Australia earlier this month while Jang Chu Yul will go to the United States later this month.

Lee Gang Seo, Kim Jeong Jun and Jang Chu Yeol, with classmate Park Jung Hyun (Picture: KRA)

The three are all graduates of the 2010 class of the KRA’s Jockey Academy and have all had reasonable starts to their career. Jang especially has already become one of track’s most consistent winners. The fourth member of the graduating class, Park Jong Hyun, was sidelined by injury for much of her first year and so will remain in Seoul to continue to get established as a rider.

Here are their career figures so far (Rides/wins/2nd/3rd):

Kim Jeong Jun: 262/6/13/14
Lee Gang Seo: 295/13/20/26
Jang Chu Yul: 333/34/27/28

Sending them overseas is in line with the KRA’s attempts to improve the quality of local jockeys. The academy plays a central role in this but spending time in other, more developed racing environments, is seen as key.

Next on the hit-list are the trainers with KRA actively seeking opportunities for trainers to go overseas to study. Shortly after qualifying, Kim Hyo Seob spent time in the United States and a number of trainers are hoping to go to the UK and Australia within the next year.

Who Is Seo Seung Woon?

Nathan Stanley And Six Apprentices Join Weighing Rooms

It was such a breathless start to the month on the track that perhaps it’s no bad thing that we’re off this coming weekend for the Korean Thanksgiving holiday. Highlight of the weekend was Australian jockey Nathan Stanley making an unexpected debut, and scoring an even more unexpected DQ victor, for countryman Peter Wolsley in the dramatic Busan Owners’ Cup on Sunday. However, Stanley was just one of seven new jockeys to debut at the weekend.

Dream Start: Seo Seung Woon drives Darling Vision to victory

The rest were all graduates of the KRA Jockey Academy, three at Seoul and three at Busan. And undoubtedly the star of the show was 21-year-old Seo Seung Woon. It started off as good fortune as the young jockey got the kind of break that others have had to wait many months for in only his second ride – he was on the favourite. If he felt any pressure, it didn’t show as he guided Challenge Concept (Concept Win) to a comfortable win. Later came the shock as in race 9, he produced a perfectly timed run on 37/1 shot Daring Vision (Perfect Champion) to beat out the opposition and claim a very good win. Punters were impressed.

New At Seoul: Lee Hyeok, Lee A-Na and Seo Seung Woon Pic: KRA

Seo is joined at Seoul by 24-year-old Lee Hyeok and 22-year-old Lee A-Na, who brings the number of female jockeys currently riding at Seoul to six. She will be looking to follow Kim Hae Sun who, two years after qualifying, is slowly becoming established as a potential star. Busan’s jockeys tend to be slightly less experienced than those at Seoul (although that is not to say less talented – often it’s anything but) so this year was the first in some time that the track has had a new intake. As well as Australian veteran Stanley, academy graduates Kim Jung Woong, Yoo Kwang Hee and Jung Dong Chul also debuted.

Busan new boys: Kim Jung Woong, Yoo Kwang Hee and Jung Dong Chul - The very manly pic is by the KRA

Korean blogger Chulgigi did sound a note of caution though. In 1995, newly qualified Ji Ha Ju won his first two races. Sixteen years later and he’s only won 212 more and has never been prolific in terms of mounts or wins. Things are different these days though. Much more rigorous training, helped by the presence of South African jockey trainer Kenny Michel, as well as stints in wither South Africa or Australia for the graduates mean that today’s newly qualified jockeys are better prepared – and, dare we say just plain better, than their forerunners. Lee Sang Hyeok, Jo In Kwen, Kim Hae Sun and Jang Chu Youl are just four recent graduates at Seoul who punters would place ahead of all but the elite four – Park Tae Jong, Cho Kyoung Ho, Moon Se Young and Choi Bum Hyun (that last one is questionable too).

As for Nathan Stanley, he debuted in 1992 and in addition to having ridden in Australia, has also competed recently in Malaysia. He takes over the senior International Jockey role at Busan from Toshio Uchida who completed his second stint at the track at the end of August.

And if the foreign contingent in Korea were feeling some sense of satisfaction that the Union had seen off Uchida only to see his replacement win a Group race in his very first ride – for a foreign trainer to boot – then they were positively rolling on the floor with laughter an hour later as Akane Yamamoto took out the Gold Circle Trophy on outsider Cheonji Horyeong (Buster’s Daydream). For some it may be that the foreigners are coming here and taking the money. They should, however, look at the benefits. The bar is being raised for everyone and that can only benefit racing in the long-term.

Record Breaking Jockey Hitomi Miyashita Retires From Racing

Hitomi Holds All-Time Japanese Win Record for Female Jockeys / Won 2009 Invitational at Busan

Hitomi Miyashita, the Japanese jockey who won the 2009 Lady Jockey Invitational, went on to spend a successful eighteen months riding at Busan Racecourse before returning to Japan this April. In her homeland, Hitomi holds the record for number of wins by a female jockey.

Hitomi Miyahshita (centre) after winning the 2009 Lady Jockey Invitational at Busan

Although the news broke last week, thirty-four year old Hitomi held a press conference at Nagoya Racecourse on Tuesday August 16 to officially make the announcement. According to the Kyodo News Agency, Hitomi cited her win on Ima Firecracker in the 2009 Lady Jockey Invitational at Busan – the race that led to her coming to Korea full-time – as being the highlight of her career.

In her time in Korea, from 660 rides, Hitomi ride 55 winners and 66 seconds for a win strike rate of 8.3% and a quinella rate of 18.3% and a place rate of 29.5% and was very popular among racing fans on the peninsula. She made one appearance at Seoul Race Park in the Grand Prix Stakes in 2009.

Here is her win on Ima Firecracker in the International Lady Jockey Invitational in 2009:

The second half of her time in Busan was more difficult than the first (as we covered here), however, Hitomi’s achievements opened the way for her Japanese successor at Busan. Akane Yamamoto, another Nagoya alumni, joined in July and is settling in well, riding her second double this past Sunday. Akane has now ridden five winners already but still has some way to go if she is to emulate Hitomi.

(h/t’s to @IshidaKazushi and @ss0325JP