Our man at Sha Tin for FWD Champions Day found Andrea Atzeni in typically joyful spirits as the red-hot rider hunts down 60 winners for the season and a first Group 1 winner in Hong Kong.
You can follow Matt's Hong Kong features throughout the week in the lead-up to Sunday's FWD Champions Day fixture at Sha Tin...
Golden 60 in Atzeni's sights
They’ve won the Derby, a July Cup and a couple of St Legers between them and familiar faces Richard Kingscote, Harry Bentley and Andrea Atzeni are now giving it everything jousting alongside some stellar names on a fiercely competitive roster of jockeys operating in Hong Kong.
The inner-city F.I.L.T.H (Failed in London, try Hong Kong) days of British expats making a tidy living out here during the 1980s and early-90s are obviously long gone, but there’s a particularly squeaky-clean feel to this highly successful trio of well-mannered individuals who aren’t doing badly, to say the least.
It’s early days in these parts for 2022 Derby-winning jockey Kingscote, whose debut season dozen victories and 31 seconds, with 20-odd meetings still to come before the summer recess, is no mean feat. Just ask David Probert, who was relieved to be “back in the swing of things” domestically with a Southwell double last month before underlining the fact his talent remains firmly intact by winning last weekend’s Fred Darling at Newbury, having left Hong Kong winless after 132 rides.
The softly-spoken Bentley, now in his fifth campaign on these shores, has the contacts in the book and over twice as many winners as Kingscote to boot. He of Limato fame arrived during the super-strict COVID times and last year finished joint-tenth in the jockeys’ standings with 31 victories to his name.
Bentley is in all likelihood going to shoot past his 2024-25 tally, and he’s not alone in that regard.
Sizzling Sardinian Atzeni, who had a brief spell in Hong Kong a decade ago, is now approaching the end of his third full campaign and sits just in behind brilliant Aussie pair Zac Purton and Hugh Bowman near the top of the rankings.
Atzeni has 47 winners and counting this season going into Sunday’s FWD Champions Day card at Sha Tin, and it evidently didn’t take him long to acclimatise to the tightly-knit contests in this part of the world, having won aboard the auspicious Mega Bonus at just the second meeting of his debut year in 2023.
Since then, he’s picked up plenty more bonuses – of various proportions – along the way, with a prize money haul for this term alone reading HK$73 million, the thick end of £7million.
Atzeni had claimed his first Group-race wins by early-2024 and ticked past the ton marker the following summer. Only last month he brought up four-timers at Happy Valley and here at Sha Tin, an achievement he still seems to be smiling about – no real wonder given the latter was also the day his first child, Thomas, came into the world.
“I rode a four-timer here the day my boy was born,” he said. “Then I had a four-timer at Happy Valley the following week I think it was. So, in March I was the winning-most jockey here.
“Somebody told me that for the last 14 meetings at Sha Tin I’ve ridden a winner. But then on Sunday I had 11 rides, and good rides, but managed just one winner. It’s great to have one, don’t get me wrong, but I was hoping for more.
“We’re on target numbers-wise. If I stay healthy and stay out of the Stewards’ room, I could hopefully go past last season’s numbers. In my first season I rode 48, last season I rode 58. We’ve still got just under three months left, which sounds like a long time but it’s not easy."
With that huge prize money tally things are looking rosy for Atzeni, and while the one major itch yet to be scratched is a Group 1 winner in Hong Kong, there are fairly obvious mitigating circumstances at present.
“I was lucky enough to win Group 1s in eight different countries,” he said proudly. “I haven’t won one in Hong Kong yet, but there aren’t that many of them through the season. And the sprint races are all won by one horse (Ka Ying Rising), in the longer races it’s always either Voyage Bubble or Romantic Warrior. So, unless you ride one of those three horses, it is very difficult to ride a Group 1 winner here.”
No jockeys' agents are permitted in this region which also comes with its own challenges, but it’s an aspect of life in Hong Kong to which the amiable Atzeni has had little trouble adjusting.
“When I first arrived, you have an agent for the first three months and that helped me a lot to get going,” he said. “Once you lose the agent you do a lot of work yourself and there’s a lot to do behind the scenes – organising your rides and trying to get on the right horses.
“The thing is, when I was in England I obviously had an agent and you don’t really know what’s happening behind the scenes – in terms of which ones you could have ridden and which ones you couldn’t. Now I go racing and I know exactly what’s happening. Last Sunday, there were three horses that won and I could have ridden all three of them, but I didn’t because I thought there were better horses. The horses I was on were better, or I thought they were better. So, it can be tricky.”
Having the likes of Bentley and Kingscote to lean on if required has also clearly helped Atzeni get a leg-up and feel right at home in Hong Kong.
He said: “Harry was here before me and has been here five years or so now. I knew him well from home – we used to hang out together a lot and we raced against each other all the time. So when I first arrived it was great to have him there.
“Richard came for a short stint and ended up doing quite well. The Club asked him to come back so it’s brilliant to have him here too. I do actually think there should be more English jockeys coming over."
Given the climate, incredible food and significant financial incentives if one manages to make the grade, it's not difficult to see his point.
Although Atzeni does admit that he still pines after a certain commodity so often taken for granted.
“I miss the good racing," he said. "I love this time of year, I can’t ride there anymore but I was watching the Craven meeting at Newmarket, there’s Newbury, the Guineas coming up – it’s a brilliant time of year back there.
“I love looking at the novices and their pedigrees and this morning I saw a Gosden filly (Brilliant Star) that won yesterday by Cracksman, out of the Irish Oaks winner Star Catcher. They look to have some nice three-year-olds, John and Thady Gosden, with the King’s horse (Portcullis), the two from Newbury the other day and that one at Yarmouth on Tuesday.
“I like to keep an eye on those, and I miss the big meetings. Watching Royal Ascot is quite painful.”
Rain a plus for returning local hero
Good racing is on the doorstep this weekend – almost literally given all registered HKJC riders are required to live on site – and Atzeni keeps the mount on last year’s winner Red Lion for trainer John Size in Sunday’s FWD Champions Mile.
He was a shock (90/1) winner under Hugh Bowman 12 months ago and Atzeni knows he’ll need the rub of the green again if a repeat is to be staged.
“It’s a very open race and a very open mile division here,” he said. “Red Lion won the race last year, he beat Voyage Bubble, but you can make a case for a lot of them. He’s got blinkers on for the first time and he’s trialled very well with them on.
“He probably needs a slow track so, depending on how much rain we get Friday and Saturday, we’ll see. If we get the rain, I hope he can run well but the Japanese horse (Jantar Mantar) looks a proper horse. I know he came to Hong Kong and was beaten in 2024 but he looks like a top miler as a five-year-old now.”
Soft spot for an old ally
If Japan are to rule in the Mile, Atzeni is confident Sunday's two other Group 1 prizes will not be up for export.
He said: "In the QEII Cup they might give Romantic Warrior a bit of a run for his money but it’s hard to beat a horse that has done it at his home track so many times. He’s shown top form abroad too. He’s uncomplicated, James (McDonald) gets the best out of him and I’d be very surprised if he gets beat.
“Having said that, I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for Royal Champion. I actually won a Group 2 on his dam, Emirates Queen, which probably shows how old I am, but I also rode Royal Champion – I won the Wood Ditton on him first time out as a three-year-old.
“So I had quite a lot to do with him during his time with Roger (Varian) and obviously Sheikh Mohammed Obaid passed away not long ago, so it would be pretty special to see him do it, but it won’t be an easy task.”
As for Ka Ying Rising in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, it’s going to be a case of watch and admire for Atzeni, who doesn’t have a ride in the race.
“With him it won’t matter if it’s a wet track or fast ground,” he said. “He’s got no faults. If they go fast, he can slot in; if they go slow, he’ll go on himself. He’s the best in the world, sprinting-wise at least, although if they stepped him up to a mile, he’d still run the mile. And if they dropped him back to 1,000m (5f), he’d still win Group 1s.
“He keeps improving every time. He’s just a freak."
After a significant change of time zone and that inevitable fuzzy, fish-out-of-water feeling amidst new surroundings on the other side of the planet, it was quite nice to catch up with a familiar face or two on Wednesday.
And, for anyone wondering how the boys Atzeni, Bentley and Kingscote are faring since stepping out of the British racing system, the postcard from Sha Tin reads a good, old-fashioned: ‘Having a good time. Wish you were here.’
You can follow Matt's Hong Kong features throughout the week in the lead-up to Sunday's FWD Champions Day fixture at Sha Tin...
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