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Pike’s early look at HK
A jockey shortage in Hong Kong means Perth’s champion rider William Pike will get an early taste of the job he has accepted for next season as a Hong Kong Jockey Club retained jockey.
Pike (23) will ride at Belmont tomorrow, but will go to Hong Kong to ride at the final four meetings of the season, on June 21, 24 and 28 and July 1. The June 24 meeting will be at Happy Valley, the others at Sha Tin – racing will resume in September after the annual break.
Australian Zac Purton will be from a back injury at Sunday’s meeting, and he Brett Prebble, Darren Beadman and James Winks will return next season, which will be Pike’s first fulltime.
Suspensions and injuries, and Prebble going to England to ride Sacred Kingdom in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes (1200m) at Royal Ascot on June 20, have forced the HKJC to look overseas to fill the gap for the remainder of this season, and Pike was an obvious target. Singapore-based South African Robbie Fradd, who has ridden in Hong Kong, was another – he will fill in this weekend at least.
Pike will win his second WA crown this season.
Australian trainer John Moore, who has been long odds-on for months to win the trainers’ premiership in Hong Kong, is looking over his shoulder with five meetings left. Moore has 62 wins, and coming home with a wet sail is Caspar Fownes, whose recent success has lifted his tally to 59. John Size is still in the race, too, with 57.
Prebble (72) is second on the jockeys’ ladder to South African Douglas Whyte (94). Beadman is third on 38. Purton has 33 and Winks 10.