It’s award season for Hong Kong racing and we’re rolling out the red carpet for some, while sweeping a few apprentice jockeys under the carpet and wondering “what the hell is a Griffin, anyway?”
There’s some good, bad and downright confusing aspects to this season’s champion awards. First of all, the Horse of the Year puzzle has already been covered by our own “Griffin” (Andrew Hawkins) and Able Friend v Aerovelocity is a great battle, but what of the lesser awards, the Jockey Club equivalents to the Oscar for best sound editing?
First, let’s start with the good, and while it isn’t technically an award acknowledged on champion awards day, the recognition of “leading freelance” rider, essentially “leading local”, should be applauded.
This is meaningful, at least for those competing for the honour. As it stands Vincent Ho Chak-yiu leads by five wins from Derek Leung Ka-chun with two meetings to go and he deserves some public recognition to go with the Cantonese bragging rights he gets over his former apprentice school alumni.
So what or who has been swept under the red carpet? Alvin Ng Ka-chun, that’s who. Disappearing from the awards – or at least the podium – is “champion apprentice”.
The award has been deemed less relevant with just three apprentices competing, and each contributing to chief steward Kim Kelly’s rising blood pressure more than the win tally.
Ng, reigning champion Dicky Lui Cheuk-yin, and newcomer Jack Wong Ho-nam fighting it out with 28 wins between them for the season is hardly Moreira v Purton v Whyte, but still, the motivation behind the award being dropped seems a little short-sighted.
The reasoning is that the apprentice ranks have become non-competitive and all of them at different stages of their careers (promising, disappointing and potentially dangerous?).
Still, failing to acknowledge the top junior rider just doesn’t sit right.
It is the Jockey Club’s responsibility to train apprentice riders and if there are not enough 10-pound claimers, or the ones who are riding aren’t up to scratch, whose fault is that?
What if in the next few seasons we see a wave of apprentice jockeys similar to the preceding era, producing not only Matthew Chadwick, but Ho, Leung and Keith Yeung Ming-lun?
If some wunderkind appears out of the wilds of Mongolia or the middle of mainland China and rides like Tony Cruz, will the award magically reappear?
Those coming through the system should have something to aspire to. If the club wants to arbitrarily decide that no apprentice is worthy of sharing the stage with Moreira, then how bad does the champion stayer award need to be to scrap that ? Liberator won in 2011-12 and this season Dominant is nominated despite having not won a race.
At least there seems some clarity over what constitutes a Griffin – a peculiar Asian term thought to have originated in India and basically meaning a previously unraced young horse.
If we are talking relevance, then this award is one that needs to come under scrutiny, too. With fewer and fewer griffin races on the calendar, it has essentially become a “rookie of the year award”.
In fact, none of the three nominees – Thewizardofoz, Country Melody or Eroico – even competed in Griffin-only contests. Still, there’s a place for a “best new young horse award”, but let’s not get it confused with “Most Improved Horse of the Season”.
Horses like Thewizardofoz and Contentment being in contention for most improved goes against the spirit of the award, and doesn’t offer a clear enough distinction to best Griffin.
Yes, Thewizardofoz and Contentment have rocketed up the ratings, but there’s an argument to say they haven’t really improved at all, just beat up on lesser opposition, or at the very least it has only been a relatively incremental change in their ability.
Take nothing away from trainer John Size, but the horses vying for the award seem like they arrived with outstanding natural ability, albeit guided expertly along.
Perhaps "Most Improved Horse" should be reserved for the patch-up jobs like Verdane or Trillion Treasure – both of whom have won five races this term.
The names might not be as sexy and when people look back through the record books they might be saying “who?”, but it’s a more accurate description. Perhaps to qualify for most improved a horse should need to have had at least six starts in the previous season.
Finally, rival columnist and former age-changing, genre-defying trainer Andy Leung Ting-wah actually had a lucid thought last week, which in of itself is cause for celebration: what about an award for best dirt horse?
There’s a school of thought that we should not be rewarding the best dirt horses with anything, but if we can’t give them a group race, let’s at least give them a trophy.
