If Golden Sixty does indeed return ahead of schedule in the Group Two Jockey Club Mile on November 19, Vincent Ho Chak-yiu will be there with him after receiving a deduction on the length of his 10-meeting suspension.
But while Ho was successful in trimming his ban from 10 meetings to eight at an appeal hearing at Happy Valley on Thursday morning, he is HK$120,000 worse off for his troubles after stewards offset the reduction in meetings with the maximum financial penalty.
The Jockey Club caps one-day fines at HK$60,000, meaning Ho has been penalised with the maximum amount for each meeting his ban has been trimmed.
“It’s not what I hoped for, but they’re strictly following the guidelines for the penalty with my case,” Ho told the Post.
“I did my best to try to get the win, and I did still get a winner – a dead-heat winner is still a winner – and I got a really stiff penalty.
“But it’s OK. I’m looking at the positive side, and at least I can come back for the Group Two, which I’m grateful for, and at least my body will be perfect by then,” added Ho, who is still working his way back to full fitness after suffering a fractured T5 vertebra in a nasty fall in Japan in July.
Ho’s suspension, which began at Happy Valley on Wednesday, stemmed from his ride aboard Capital Delight in the four-year-old’s dead heat with Lucky Archangel at the city circuit on October 4.
Stewards found Ho “guilty of a charge under Rule 100 (2) in that he failed to ride his mount out all the way to the end of the race to the satisfaction of the stewards” after he put his whip away a stride or two before the line.
Rule 100 (2) states “every jockey shall ride his mount out approaching the end of the race and all the way to the end of the race”.
“The appeal panel carefully considered all the evidence, including further evidence taken today,” Jockey Club stewards said in a statement on Thursday.
Ho slapped with 10-meeting ban for lacking vigour in final strides of dead heat
“The panel decided to vary the race riding suspension, which now runs from October 18 until November 12, on which day he may resume race riding. The panel also ordered jockey Ho be fined the sum of HK$120,000 in lieu of a period of suspension from riding in races, which would incorporate two race days.”
That fine will be but a drop in the ocean if Golden Sixty returns victorious in the HK$5.35 million Jockey Club Mile, which falls on what was the final day of Ho’s initial ban.
Undoubtedly, Ho will have a string of other winning chances at those two meetings as he looks to kick his season back into gear and add to the eight victories he compiled across the first 10 fixtures of the 2023-24 campaign.
