With Cho Kyoung Ho sidelined through suspension at the weekend, Park Tae Jong moved up into second place in the 2008 Jockeys’ Championship. Moon Se Young landed a double on both Saturday and Sunday to move onto 110 but it was Choi Beom Hyun who was the most prolific rider of the weekend with a total of six winners:
1. Moon Se Young 110
2. Park Tae Jong 81
3. Cho Kyoung Ho 80
4. Choi Beom Hyun 61
5. Ikuyasu Kurakane 42
Tough time highlights difficulties faced by overseas riders
Danny Craven, who completed nine months in Korea in August this year is back riding in Queensland and has been speaking about his time in Korea. Craven had 131 rides during his Korean stint landing 10 winners, 9 seconds and 13 third place finshes. He spent five months at Seoul and then a further four at Busan.
Speaking to WWOS.com.au, Craven talked about the difficulties faced by foreign jockeys in Korea saying “It was very difficult trying to get rides as the Korean trainers stuck with their local riders”. Also, as most of the overseas riders have found, the language barrier proved very difficult to overcome. Craven’s final comment was “I know one thing, I’ll never go back to ride there again”. Read the full article here.
South African veteran joins Seoul Race Park
The latest overseas jockey to come to Korea will make his debut this Saturday at Seoul Race Park. South African Willie Uys has signed a one year contract and will line up on the three year old Absolute Power in race 4. The forty six year old Uys comes to Korea off the back of a career that has so far yielded just over one thousand winners from just under ten thousand rides. Uys will be the third South African jockey to debut this year. Chris Taylor’s stint at Seoul was short-lived but Deryl Daniels is into his third month at Busan and looks set to be joined by another, Petrus Botha, later this month.
Uys has just the one ride on Saturday and then one more on Sunday when he will partner Eastern Hotshot in race 3.
There’s just a week and a half to go until the President’s Cup, one of the year’s biggest races for older horses at Seoul Race Park where Myeongmun Gamun and Baekpa are expected to renew hostilities. This coming weekend, however, most of the top action will be at Busan Race Park.
On Friday, Korean Derby winner Ebony Storm will face off against the formidable Areumdaun Jilju in a handicap and then on Sunday, thirteen will line up for the Busan Metropolitan City Cup, one of the biggest races of the year open to foreign bred horses. Golding heads the field for the 2000 metre handicap which has a first prize of KRW 142Million. The race is off at 15:20 and will be simulcast to Seoul Race Park. Full list of runners, records, weights and riders:
Busan Metro City Cup (G.III) – Busan Race Park – 2000M – Nov 9, 2008 – 15:20
1. Bugyeong Choegang (AUS) (17/7/4/2) – 55.5kg – Gu Young Jun
2. Gamun Bobae (USA) (19/5/3/4) – 58kg – Chae Gyu Jun
3. Angle Slam (USA) (35/7/6/8) – 54.5kg – Eiki Nishimura
4. Alchan Sonyeo (USA) (52/1/4/8) – 50kg – Kim Myoung Shin
5. Winter Invitation (AUS) (30/3/6/5) – 52.5kg – Jo Chan Hoon
6. Hard Ride (USA) (14/4/2/1) – 52.5kg – Lim Sung Sil
7. Wonder Love (USA) (36/5/9/6) – 57kg – Han Sang Gyu
8. Florida Native (USA) (21/7/3/3) – 54.5kg – Yoo Hyun Myoung
9. King Kephalos (JPN) (9/5/1/1) – 53kg – Jo Chang Wook
10. Golding (USA) (32/15/7/4) – 60kg – Toshio Uchida
11. Oreumak (AUS) (45/5/5/8) – 50kg – Choi Si Dae
12. Dongbang Geona (JPN) (22/9/3/1) – 55.5kg – Kim Eu Su
13. Seonbaljein (JPN) (39/5/7/5) – 53.5kg – Ahn Sun Ho
Moon Se Young has gone past the 100 winner mark for the season and remains a long way clear at the Jockey’s Championship for 2008 as he bears down on Park Tae Jong’s previous calender year best of 120:
1. Moon Se Young 106
2. Cho Kyoung Ho 80
3. Park Tae Jong 78
4. Choi Beom Hyun 55
5. Ikuyasu Kurakane 42
Park Byoung Yun was the latest of the newly qualified apprentice jockeys to pick up his first winner on Saturday. Of the seven newcomers this year, Lee Sang Hyuk, Park Si Cheon and Kim Cheol Ho have all landed four winners with only Kim Dong Min and Yoo Mi Na, now recovered from injury, yet to score.
1. Lee Sang Hyuk 4/5/2
2. Park Si Cheon 4/3/10
3. Kim Cheol Ho 4/1/2
4. Park Byoung Yun 1/1/9
5. Jo In Kwon 1/1/1
6. Kim Dong Min 0/0/2
7. Yoo Mi Na 0/0/0
There will be a full field of fourteen contesting Sunday afternoon’s Gyeonggi-do Cup at Seoul Race Park. The 1800 metre race, named for the province where the Seoul track is located, is a handicap for locally bred category 3 fillies and has a first prize of KRW 106Million. Full list of runners, riders and weights:
Gyeonggi-do Cup – Seoul Race Park – 1800M – Nov. 2, 2008 – 16:40
1. Yosulgongju (17/2/2/3) – 54kg – Moon Jung Kyun
2. Gyeongcheonyeowang (19/2/4/1) – 53.5kg – Yoo Sang Wan
3. Hwanggeumnara (21/1/5/7) – 53.5kg – Nozomu Tomizawa
4. Gayawangbi (19/2/4/2) – 54kg – Kim Hyo Seob
5. Happy Queen (12/2/3/3) – 53.5kg – Cho Kyoung Ho
6. Gate Way (15/3/3/1) – 54kg – Lee Gi Hwoi
7. Seonggongchulbal (10/1/2/2) – 53kg – Lee Jun Cheol
8. Mild Go (11/3/3/0) – 56kg – Moon Se Young
9. Meotjin Segye (10/2/2/2) – 54kg – Ikuyasu Kurakane
10. Night Fever (15/2/2/2) – 53kg – Oh Kyoung Hoan
11. Hera (7/3/1/1) – 54kg – Lee Dong Kuk
12. Gangdonguijumal (18/4/0/2) – 55.5 – Park Tae Jong
13. Dreamer (19/2/2/4) – 54.5 – Shin Hyoung Cheol
14. Wonder Wonder (20/2/5/2) – 56kg – Choi Beom Hyun
As noted below, racing begins at Seoul Race Park at 11:00am on both Saturday and Sunday.
The weekend’s action got underway at Busan Race Park this afternoon, CLICK HERE FOR FULL RESULTS.
Pick Me Up’s second race in the US went much the same way as his first at Charles Town, West Virginia last Friday evening. Racing on dirt, the 6 year old started brightly but was soon at the back of the field of 9 in the HBPA Governor’s Stakes over 9 furlongs. Hopes that his disappointing showing in his US debut at Delaware Park last month could be put down to running on turf for the first time were dashed as the change in surface made little difference to his performance which was described in the race summary as “finished early”. Pick Me Up will race on in the US before returning to Korea in December.
See the video of the race here. It does not make pleasant viewing for Korean racing fans. (Thanks to fpop for the video).
J.S. Hold [Ft. Stockton – Hwansangjiljoo (Passetreul)], considered by many to be Korea’s greatest ever domestically bred thoroughbred, has been officially retired nearly a year since his last outing on the track. In 2007, the chestnut colt won Korea’s Triple Crown in commanding style.
Debuting in race 1 at 11am on Minister’s Cup day in October 2006, J.S. Hold finished fourth of twelve in a category 6 race. It was the last time any horse would finish in front of him and one year later, he would be completing the Triple Crown in the main event. Following that first race, J.S. Hold ran once a month winning each time as he stepped up in class and distance until he arrived at the Ttukseom Cup in April 2007. By this time, word was out that a special horse had arrived and, sent off the 1.4 favourite, under Moon Jung Kyun the horse powered to a seven length win.
Next up was the Korean Derby in May. In an astonishing display, J.S. Hold hit the front on the backstretch and cruised to an eleven length win. The following month, the three year old was sent up against older horses and, in a big handicap, cantered past the likes of Secret Weapon and Myeongmun Gamun to win by five lengths. It was after this, however, that a leg injury started to affect the horse and it was touch and go as to whether he’d be ready for the final race of the Triple Crown, the Minister’s Cup on October 14. He made it, however. The pace was set throughout by Ganghomyeongjang who was still in front as they entered the final furlong, Moon Jung Kyun shifted J.S. Hold out from the rail and gradually ran down his opponent hitting the front just metres from the line for the historic win in Korea’s first Triple Crown series.
Whether the race aggravated his injury is unclear but trainer Kim Dae Geun has been quoted as saying that regardless of the historic achievement, he regrets running J.S. Hold that day. When it came to the season ending Grand Prix in December the trainer won the argument with his owner and he didn’t run. Indeed, he never ran again. In June this year, he appeared among the entries for a handicap race after showing promise in track-work. Come declaration day, however, his name was gone and never appeared again. For a Triple Crown winner, J.S. Hold faces an uncertain future. With little interest among breeders for any Korean bred horse, even one as talented as him, his owners have had a hard time finding a place for him with even the farm where he was born turning him down. Eventually it was agreed he will retire to Taemyoung Farm on Jeju Island but it is doubtful that there will be sons or daughters of J.S. Hold on the track in future. What this says for the fate of less high-profile horses in Korea is troubling.
This coming Saturday, there will be a ceremony to honour the achievements of J.S. Hold after the fourth race at Seoul Race Park. The videos of his Triple Crown win can be seen below:
Ttukseom Cup – 1200M, April 15, 2007
Korean Derby – 1800M, May 27, 2007
Minster of Agriculture’s Cup – 2000M 14 October, 2007
“So, who is Myung Kwon Cho?” asked the racing blog Foolish Pleasure on Sunday after the 2 year old colt Street Hero won the G1 Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita for the little known owner/trainer. It turns out that Cho is a 66 year old Korean who emigrated to the United States in 1978. He set up a clothing business and when it became successful started to own – and later train – racehorses. Read the Foolish Pleasure article here. Street Hero will go on to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Video of Sunday’s race can be seen at bloodhorse.com.
Black and Thompson lead ROTW team / Five exchange races announced
The KRA is gearing up for its annual International Weekend which gets underway Friday at Busan Race Park and continues on Saturday and Sunday at Seoul Race Park. Highlight of the event is the International Jockey Challenge which takes place on Saturday and Sunday at Seoul. Five invited overseas jockeys will be in Seoul to represent the Rest of the World team against five local jockeys over four races, one on Saturday and three on Sunday. Making up the International team are:
Anthony Black (USA) – The winner of over 5000 races in a career that has spanned nearly thirty years. His biggest win came in the Pennsylvania Derby on Devil’s Honor in 1997.
Greg Cheyne (South Africa) – Eastern Cape Champion Cheyne has racked up nearly 1000 winners and won the Canon Gold Cup on Desert Links at Greyville in August.
Eddie Lai (Hong Kong) – The 32 year old won the Hong Kong Classic Mile in 2003 and the HSBC Premier Bowl in 2006.
Issei Murata (Japan) – Murata won the Negisi Stakes and Argentina Trophy last year.
Robert Thompson (Australia) – Thompson holds the record for the most wins ever by an Australian jockey and is only the fourth Australian in history to ride over 3000 winners.
Korea fields five jockeys who are at the top of the jockey’s championship this year. Veteran Park Tae Jong heads the team as usual and is joined by the only two jockeys ahead of him in the standings, Moon Se Young and Cho Kyoung Ho. Rounding out the team are Moon Jung Kyun and the in-form Choi Beom Hyun.
A first prize of $20,000 will go to the jockey who scores the most points over the weekend. Twenty points will be awarded for a win, 15 for a second place and then down in increments of three to sixth place. Last year, South African Gerrit Schlecter took the honours.
In addition to the Jockey’s Challenge, five International Exchange Races will also take place. Each with a first prize of KRW 53Million, the first will be the Macau Jockey Club race at Busan Race Park on Friday. Saturday sees races for the STC, the Australian Jockey Club and Horse Racing Ireland, while on Sunday, the JRA Trophy race takes centre stage. Two Malaysia based jockeys will also be over for the STC race, Ronald Woodworth and Harmeet Singh Gill. We’ll have a further preview of the big races once final cards are published later in the week.
