Bad boy Yu saddles up for Sha Tin
Ken Martinus, The Standard
05-Mar-2010 |
Former top apprentice jockey Roger Yu Kin- hung returns to Hong Kong racing tomorrow - 10 years after he was kicked out the sport for bad behavior.
Yu, his elder brother Alex Yu King-shing and sister Carol Yu Wing-sze caught the attention of the racing public in the late 1990s when all three joined the apprentices' training school.
Alex Yu later graduated but saw dwindling riding opportunities as a freelance rider and quit in 2007 to become a senior work rider.
Carol Yu stopped riding in 2000 to act in a TV series about horse racing, but returned as a work rider two years later. Last year she became the first woman to be appointed assistant trainer by the Jockey Club.
As a rider, Roger Yu landed 35 winners, mostly for trainer Ricky Yiu Poon-fai. But his poor discipline off the track, including once threatening his sister with a chair, saw him lose his license in 2000.
He did odd jobs at Beas River for two years and then joined Tony Millard's stable as a work rider from 2002 to 2004, following hints he may get his license back. But when this did not materialize, he walked away from the racetrack and horses.
Late last year, former Hong Kong trainers and riders working in Macau encouraged the now 31-year-old to make a return. After a month's intensive training, Yu made his racecourse reappearance in Macau on February 5 and rode a winner on his first day.
Since then, he has maintained a win rate of 20 percent, with 35 percent of all his mounts finishing in the top three.
As a visiting rider for a Macau horse running in tomorrow's Group 3 Hong Kong Macau Trophy over 1400 metres at Sha Tin, Yu is allowed to accept other rides on the card.
Not surprisingly, four trainers have given him mounts, including Classic Energy from his former mentor Ricky Yiu.Yu's other rides are Hinyuen Paladin in Race 1, Touch Lucky in Race 2, Euro Swiftly in Race 7 and Golden Pistols for former Hong Kong champion trainer Brian Kan Ping-chee in the trophy event. |
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