Hong Kong apprentice jocks head down under
Champion Hong Kong apprentice jockey Kei Chiong Ka-kei will start her one-month stint in Australia with five metropolitan rides in Adelaide.
Chiong is spending the Hong Kong off-season with leading Adelaide trainer Phillip Stokes.
She has three rides for Stokes and two for John Hickmott at Morphettville on Saturday.
Chiong rode 37 winners in the Hong Kong season to claim the apprentice premiership and was voted Hong Kong’s most popular jockey ahead of Joao Moreira.
She was the first female rider to be licensed in Hong Kong since Carol Yu retired in 2000.
Fellow Hong Kong-based apprentice Jack Wong is also set to ride in Australia for the first time at Hawkesbury on Sunday.
Wong is spending the off-season with John Sargent and will ride Elusive Runner who is having his third start since finishing seventh in the 2014 Group One Queensland Derby.
Elusive Runner was sent to Hong Kong but injured a tendon before he could race there and was returned to Sargent.
Chiong spent time riding in New Zealand indentured to Graham Richardson and Allan Sharrock, while Wong rode there for Sargent before the trainer moved to Australia.
Their countryman Matthew Poon has been riding mostly in South Australia for more than a year and has 49 wins to his name.
Poon, indentured to Richard Jolly, is yet to ride in Hong Kong but is expected to head home to pursue a career when his Australian stint ends in June.
He is booked for six rides at Morphettville on Saturday.