May 42 min read

Racing B!tch

ANGUS CHUNG GRADUATES! POPPY GETS EMOTIONAL!

While watching apprentice Ellis Wong ride a double at Happy Valley and quite an emotional graduation ceremony for Angus Chung and girlfriend Poppy after the last race of the night, one couldn’t help thinking if it might be time for the Hong Kong Apprentice scheme to be tweaked?

Though we can’t see Hong Kong born apprentices being taken in for mentoring by the likes of Waterhouse/Bott, Waller, Maher etc, we were wondering if they might benefit from mentoring by someone like former champion jockey Robbie Fradd?

Retired from race riding and having made the successful transition of mentoring excellent young Queensland riding talent like Angela Jones, below, could the former champion Hong Kong Jockey have a role to play by taking in the city’s apprentices’ dreams further than having them return to Hong Kong to be track riders?

Could there even be some sort of short term exchange programme?

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BITS AND PIZZAS AND RANDOMNESS

The HKJC introduces Selfie Corners at the Shatin and Happy Valley racecourses, where a cameraman films random people dancing happily to “Don’t Stop Believing” all night and which is streamed ‘live’.

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FRAUDULENT TIPS FOR SALE? IN HORSE RACING? REALLY?

Hong Kong racing circles are abuzz with news of self styled local KOL being taken in by police for questioning on fraud allegations.

In a world gone nuts, this is an everyday occurrence in Hong Kong with at least 5-6 cold calls a day and the text and WhatsApp messages offering just about everything that’s dodgy.

Officials are doing the best they can to quell the aggressive marketing of online fraudsters without resorting to many of the sanctimonious and shallow howlers presented by Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

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THE SHALLOWNESS AND POINTLESSNESS…

Remember all that talk about those anti gambling advertisements introduced in Australia?

How effective are they these days? We ask this when these lines become throwaways like “Chances are you’re about to lose” are linked by those same voices tossing out these sanctimonious lines immediately returning to more tipping on everything to persuade you to, well, bet?