Ellis Wong Chi-wang dreams of emulating Vincent Ho Chak-yiu and already the leading local jockey has shown his willingness to support the new kid on the block.

After partnering Kaholo Angel to victory on debut last month, Ho was booked to ride the three-year-old again this Sunday but relinquished the ride when approached by his old boss Caspar Fownes, who was announced as Wong’s master earlier this week.

Instead, Wong will take the ride aboard Kaholo Angel in Sunday’s opener, the Carnation Plate (1,000m) for Griffins, as he makes his Hong Kong debut at Sha Tin.

“Actually, Vincent Ho was booked to ride the horse because I didn’t know Ellis was going to come to my stable at that stage,” Fownes said.

“But once I knew that he was indentured to me, I spoke to Vincent and said, ‘I think it would be nice if you get off this horse. Let’s give the young boy a nice ride in a small field on a horse who looks to be a potential winning chance’.

“Vincent was very good. He gave the ride straight away. It’s a nice ride for young Ellis. It’s a small field. He’s drawn three. He’ll get his chance, and the horse looks well. If he wins, he wins. If he doesn’t win, it doesn’t matter. As long as he gives him a good ride and learns from it, we’ll be OK.”

An all-round athlete in his youth, Wong competed at the 2016 World Taekwondo Junior Championships before joining the Jockey Club’s Apprentice Jockeys’ School in 2017.

The 22-year-old, who rode 88 winners during his overseas training in South Australia, is thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from Fownes and itching to start putting his 10-pound claim to use this weekend.

“I’m very pleased, excited and grateful to be able to come back to Hong Kong and compete against outstanding jockeys. I’m very excited ahead of my first meeting, and I thank my boss for giving me a good ride. I’ll try my best,” Wong said.

After working so well with Ho and, more recently, guiding Alfred Chan Ka-hei through the latter stages of his apprenticeship, Fownes is looking forward to imparting his knowledge on Wong.

“I’m just very happy to finally get an apprentice back in the stable, and we’ll certainly be giving Ellis a good chance to learn how to ride properly in Hong Kong,” Fownes said.

“It’s one of the toughest racing jurisdictions in the world. He’s going to make mistakes, but we’re going to forgive him for that. He’s going to learn from those mistakes because I’ll be there to guide him through that.

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“In life, as long as you learn from your mistakes and get better, you’re always going to do well. The most important thing is we won’t be putting too much pressure on him.

“We’ll be giving him some nice rides, and we’ll be mentoring him the right way to give him the best possible chance to get some winning results early in his career. Like anything in racing, once you start to produce and get some winners, people will always jump on the bandwagon, and you’ll get more support.

“We’ll be hoping Ellis will slowly start to mature into his role in Hong Kong and be a nice jockey for the future.”