Wally Pyrah previews the 2025/26 Hong Kong season
WITH the start of the 2025/26 Hong Kong racing season approaching at Sha Tin on Sunday, it’s time to find out what the all-important crystal ball is foretelling for the months ahead.
However, you don’t need to be a soothsayer to predict that reigning champion jockey Zac Purton will have a good chance of landing his ninth Hong Kong jockeys’ title.
The Zac-Man is way out on his own on the jockeys’ roster, highlighted by missing a dozen meetings through injury in February, but still beating his nearest pursuer Hugh Bowman by 66 winners in last season’s title race.
Bowman is predicting he will surpass last season’s 72 winner total, but he will always have weight issues, which is worth mentioning given 97% of races in the city are handicaps.
Another rider to highlight is Karis Teetan, who had a season to forget last term, with just 44 winners, his worst for eight years, and a host of suspensions.
Expect Teetan to bounce back to his best in the upcoming campaign, with the ‘Mauritian Magician’ likely to be further aided by the arrival of new trainer from South Africa, Brett Crawford.
Teetan and Crawford have history from their time together in South Africa, with the partnership proving a formidable combination before the jockey departed for Hong Kong.
Up-and-coming pilot Luke Ferraris is also worth following after last season’s successful campaign, which included partnering My Wish to victory in the Hong Kong Classic Cup and finishing runner-up in the HK Derby.
There is little doubt, My Wish with Ferraris aboard, are winners waiting to happen in the middle-distance Group Ones this season.
There will be plenty of British interest this season with Richard Kingscote and David Probert, who both take up six-month contracts in the territory, in action.
Kingscote arrives full of confidence following a successful time in Britain, and last season’s back-end winning treble in the city.
Probert on the other hand, may struggle, being unknown to the majority of local owners and trainers. It will be paramount he gets on the scoresheet early, or he faces a tough time ahead.
This could also be a make-or-break season for former legendary New Zealand trainer Jamie Richards, who had a disastrous 2024/25 campaign with just 22 wins, and had his stable decimated by owners transferring their horses to other yards.
Richards is clearly capable of getting over this set-back and has a couple of horses who can get him back in the limelight in the coming weeks.
Bulb General was hugely impressive when winning at Sha Tin in the final week of the season and will prove far better than his present handicap mark.
It should be a similar story with stable companion Young Achiever who suffered a ligament injury last November, keeping him off the track for seven months.
Richards had to go back to the drawing board with his talented galloper, but there is no doubt, judged on his two performances at the back end of last season, he will win again.
The added bonus is the handicapper dropped him a further three pounds in the ratings during the summer break.
As we look ahead to the opening fixture at Sha Tin this Sunday (7 September) and the hugely anticipated return of last year’s Hong Kong Horse of the Year, Ka Ying Rising, there’s no doubt the new Hong Kong season will provide its usual exceptional racing, with many twists and turns along the way.