Moon Se Young’s victory on Sichuseon in the Netizen’s Day race yesterday afternoon was his fiftieth of the season, however, Cho Kyoung Ho managed to narrow the gap slightly to six after managing a double on both days. Park Tae Jong marked his return from a two week ban with three winners on Sunday and Ikuyasu Kurakane continued his good run of form with three wins over the weekend. Shim Seung Tae is in fifth place on 16 and Woo Chang Gu, the highest placed retained jockey in the list with 13. Jockeys retained by trainers are only allowed a limited number of rides each week so freelancers – of which there are 18 at Seoul – dominate the leaderboard:

1. Moon Se Young 50

2. Cho Kyoung Ho 44

3. Park Tae Jong 23

4. Ikuyasu Kurakane 18

With Cho Kyoung Ho and Park Tae Jong both absent, Moon Se Young was the only one of the top three jockeys in action at Seoul Race Park over the weekend, managing three wins to go eight clear of Cho. Moon was, unsurprisingly voted “MVP” for the first quarter and is on course to break Park’s 2000 record of 120 winners in a calendar year. Ikuyasu Kurakane landed three over the weekend to move into fourth place on 16 winners and there were victories for both of the female riders, Lee Ae Li and Lee Shin Young who moved onto 2 and 5 winners respectively. Lee Ae Li’s weekend finished early, however, injuring a finger during race 2 on Sunday.

1. Moon Se Young 48

2. Cho Kyoung Ho 40

3. Park Tae Jong 20

4. Ikuyasu Kurakane 16

Seoul Jockey’s Championship – With Moon Se Young absent over the weekend, Cho Kyoung Ho scored five winners to move within 5 at the top of the jockey’s championship. Park Tae Jong, back in third, was also absent through suspension although he maintains a 6 win lead over Shim Seung Tae who has moved into fourth on his own. Other notable results from the weekend included a treble for Ikuyasu Kurakane – his first in Korea – on Saturday, and a first win for nearly a year for female jockey Lee Ae Li on Sunday:

1. Moon Se Young 45

2. Cho Kyoung Ho 40

3. Park Tae Jong 20

4. Shim Seung Tae 14

The KRA’s website is reporting that Australian jockey Danny Craven is set to move to Busan.  Craven came to Seoul Race Park in November 2007 on a six month contract during which he has so far ridden five winners from 102 rides.  His initial contract with the KRA finishes on May 14th and it is reported that he will relocate to South Gyeongsang province for a further three months which will keep him in Korea until the middle of August.

Park Tae Jong has been handed a two day ban for his ride of Baekgwang in the Ttukseom Cup on Sunday. Park dropped his whip with 50 metres to go (wrongly attributed by me to him recognising Baekgwang’s injury) and this being his third offence recently, the ban was imposed. Meanwhile, Baekgwang will be out of action for at least a year.

Seoul Jockey’s Championship

Moon Se Young scored a treble on Saturday and Cho Kyoung Ho a treble on Sunday. Both jockeys added one more victory on the other day so there’s no change at the top of the table with Moon leading by ten. It was a winless weekend for Park Tae Jong who nevertheless, remains in third.

1. Moon Se Young 45

2. Cho Kyoung Ho 35

3. Park Tae Jong 20

4 = Shim Seung Tae; Choi Beom Hyun 12

Shim Seung Tae was the weekend’s biggest winner with five victories nearly doubling his total for the season so far. Moon Se Young crossed the forty mark with three winners and Cho Kyoung Ho stayed within ten. Park Tae Jong lost on three favourites on Saturday but scored a double on Sunday to move on to 20.

1. Moon Se Young 41

2. Cho Kyoung Ho 31

3. Park Tae Jong 20

4. Choi Beom Hyun 12

Back on the Gold Coast, Garry Baker has been speaking about his time in Korea again, this time in an interview with Queensland Racing Magazine. As in other interviews Baker generally looks back quite positively on his time at Busan although noting that the quality of horses was “very average” and that “racing (in Korea) is probably like it was in Japan about 30 years ago”. Read the full article here.

Also the Chosun Ilbo today reported details on the KRA’s alleged misconduct as found by the Board of Audit and Inspection. Article.

On a bad Monday morning for the Korea Racing Authority (KRA), the state auditor named it as one of seven public companies out of thirty one inspected that will face punishment for various wrongdoings. The KRA’s alleged offence appears to have been to declare overtime work payments as “basic fees” thereby paying its employees too much. The announcement has intensified calls in some parts of the media for the KRA along with the other public companies (including the Korea Coal and Oil Corporations) to be privatised, as well as speculation that executives in the companies – who are appointed by the government may be replaced after the April 9 National Assembly elections. See articles here and here.

The KRA has come under fire for Sunday’s late cancellation which apparently came after some racegoers had entered the track. Local press has put the cause of the cancellation of racing on what turned out to be a mild and dry, if slightly breezy, spring day on the supposedly all-weather track down to there being excessive salt in the track which, during Saturday’s downpours turned the course into a quagmire. This had severely impeded jockey’s visibility making racing too dangerous. Indeed both last Sunday and on Saturday, conditions did not look fit for racing. Sunday was the fourth day of racing called off at Seoul in the past year – one following the death of jockey Lim Dae Gyu during a race last August and another two in November due to industrial action.