As a city, Hong Kong is on life support, and certainly not exuding its usual come hither good vibes ‘look’, all of which has had a negative domino effect on everything. This includes horse racing.
Though it might still be allowed to carry on with stringent measures in place by the Hong Kong Jockey Club to keep everything to do with the pastime in its racing bubble, with everything else happening in the city, the level of interest in horse racing is nothing like what it was. There are far greater life priorities.
As always, however, there’s still some glimmer of hope, and Hong Kong racing has the habit of providing this. During the SARS crisis, there were the exploits of the champion Silent Witness with Felix Coetzee aboard.
There’s also the knack of racing in Hong Kong improving riding talent and being the springboard for discovering and catapulting the careers of new ones.
Mauritian Karis Teetan who arrived in Hong Kong from South Africa in 2013 as an unknown, immediately comes to mind as someone who made the most of the opportunity by winning with his very first ride in the city. Look at where he is today...
It might be something in the water, it might be the dim sum, it might be the quality of the competition and a history of many lesser known names having arrived here and given that rare opportunity to ride against some of the very best in the world- Piggott, Eddery, Kinane, Mosse, Eric Saint Martin, below, Christophe Soumillon, Ryan Moore, Hugh Bowman, Douglas Whyte, Brett Prebble, Zac Purton, Joao Moreira...
These days, apart from the surprising success of the once errant Vagner Borges, who, when riding for Trainer John Size, this season, has a better strike rate than even the Size-Moreira Happy Meal combo, rapidly making a name for himself is Harry Bentley from the UK.
As one should know by now, in a bilingual city that’s quickly becoming trilingual and gawd knows what else, what matters, especially in horse racing, is what’s been said on Chinese social media and those deemed to be KOLs- Key Opinion Leaders in horse racing who have their own YouTube channels and where they air their views.
Other than cryptic and cutting remarks made recently about what could be called the Zone D Dum Dee Dum Dum Affair, and a roll call of which jockeys are seeing a sudden drop in their popularity, Harry Bentley is being tipped as The Jockey To Follow.
Many here like his face. Being the best is never enough. Nothing beats having a face Hong Kong racing fans like.
Having watched the cool confidence he exuded when riding a winner for Caspar Fownes last Wednesday, Harry Bentley is more than a pretty face. He’s someone who’s definitely going places in the racing game in Hong Kong- especially if Hong Kong gets its mojo back.
Here’s a city that’s definitely lost its way, thanks to the fear of whatever the latest variant might be and saddled with completely locked down minds that’s being fed by a befuddled government. This 24/7 worrying takes priority over everything- EVERYTHING- else. Living like this is definitely not fun. It’s an arduous task for one to even think about racing, let alone wonder how all those jockeys competing to empty houses with all of this everything else swirling around them, do it. Take a bow, guys.
Getting back to Harry Bentley, he’s in his late twenties, he’s receiving the support needed to succeed from the more influential Chinese stables whose owners usually have their tentacles everywhere.
From what we hear, he’s about to be given some very good new rides to add to his portfolio.
As another Brazilian rider- Ruan Maia- has discovered, being the regular rider on the very impressive Richard Gibson trained Navas Two, a possible future champion galloper, has quickly changed how he’s perceived by owners and the racing media.
Getting this one ride has opened new doors of opportunities for a rider who, a few months ago was wondering if his future career was in Hong Kong.
On Saturday at Shatin, though Navas Two tried 1600 metres for the first time which proved a bridge too far, it’s okay.
Though some of us know two jockeys who have been campaigning for the ride, Richard Gibson has made it clear that Ruan Maia wasn’t going to be replaced.
Just to make sure this partnership was very much working, they combined earlier in the day to salute with 75 to 1 pop Right Honourable.
As for Harry Bentley, with his popularity on Chinese social media, the winners starting to flow and even some of those big spending owners with those ubiquitous silks looking his way, the rider is, as they say, “trending”. And that incredible ride at Shatin this afternoon to win on Glenealy Generals deserves to go viral. It made this writer almost forget that Hong Kong is having a meltdown..
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