Hong Kong’s ‘Backup Singer’ Steps Into The Spotlight Again
Karis Teetan prepares to ride Ka Ying Rising in next week’s Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup after a run of being “in the right place at the right time” for many of Hong Kong’s champions.
IN THE fast-paced, cutthroat world of Hong Kong racing, opportunities can come and go in the blink of an eye. Yet when they land in the capable hands of the jurisdiction’s top super-sub, Karis Teetan, he’s quick to seize them – and rarely fails to deliver.
With Zac Purton sidelined after his heavy fall at Sha Tin, Teetan has been thrust into the limelight once more, entrusted with the ride aboard the world’s best sprinter, Ka Ying Rising, when the four-year-old star bids for his third consecutive Group 1 victory in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup on February 23.
For Teetan, who filled in for Purton when he steered Ka Ying Rising to a dominant Group 3 success last June, it presents another golden opportunity to show the world what he’s made of on the big stage.
“At the end of the day, this is Hong Kong and everything can change so quickly for you,” Teetan told Idol Horse this week. “I struggled to get support after a couple of suspensions earlier in the season, but I’ve had a couple of good days at Sha Tin and now I’m riding Ka Ying Rising in a week’s time – it’s just unbelievable how fast things can turn around.”
Teetan’s career in Hong Kong has never been about basking in the glory of stardom. Instead, it’s been a tale of exceptional athleticism, a positive attitude and the fearlessness to get into the right spot at the right time around the challenging tracks of Happy Valley and Sha Tin.
“You just have to stay positive when you’re here,” he says with his customary optimistic outlook. “You can’t let yourself get too down when things aren’t going great because you don’t know what opportunities might be around the corner.”
Teetan, 34, joined the Hong Kong ranks at the start of the 2013-14 season and immediately made an impact, becoming the first jockey in 11 years to win with his first ride in the city. Since then, he has cemented himself in the upper echelon of the jockey ranks and become a safe pair of hands when it comes to taking the reins aboard Hong Kong’s top gallopers.
It was only two months after he first landed in Hong Kong that he began an association with two of the greatest horses ever to grace the Sha Tin turf: Able Friend and Designs On Rome.
Teetan partnered Able Friend in his first two starts as a four-year-old and was successful in a Group 2 towards the end of the 2013-14 campaign when regular pilot, Brazilian jockey Joao Moreira, was suspended.
When Moreira chose to ride Peniaphobia instead of Able Friend in the G2 Premier Bowl 18 months later, Teetan again took full advantage, guiding the John Moore-trained star to the final victory of his glittering career.
“I’m very lucky to have been in the right place at the right time for a lot of very good horses,” he says. “With Able Friend, Joao [Moreria] had to ride another horse so it opened a big door for me to get on again.”
That impeccable timing also brought him a similar success story with Able Friend’s stablemate, Designs On Rome. Teetan, who was accustomed to keeping the seat warm for Tommy Berry when Designs On Rome made his seasonal reappearance in the G2 Sha Tin Trophy, produced a tactical tour de force to claim the 2016 renewal and subsequently kept the ride for the G2 Jockey Club Cup a month later.
Mr Stunning gave Teetan his first two Group 1 victories in Hong Kong and he secured his third top-level win when Moreira opted to jump off Panfield for the 2021 Champions & Chater Cup. His most recent partnership with an all-time great began in January 2022 when he hopped aboard Romantic Warrior for the first time.
Teetan replaced Moreira aboard Romantic Warrior in the Hong Kong Classic Mile after the Brazilian committed to ride the well-beaten Master Delight in the race. The ‘Mauritian Magician’ duly delivered before taking out Hong Kong’s most prestigious race, the Derby, and the G1 QE II Cup on Danny Shum Chap-shing’s superstar.
“I had Designs On Rome, Romantic Warrior, there are quite a few good ones to be honest,” Teetan adds with a laugh. “It’s what all us jockeys want to be doing, riding in the best races on top horses against quality riders.”
While the likes of Purton, Moreira and Douglas Whyte may be remembered as the heavyweight champions of Hong Kong racing, Teetan’s record speaks for itself.
A double on the Sha Tin dirt on Wednesday night took Teetan to 713 Hong Kong wins, placing him sixth in the all-time win list ahead of a host of top-class riders including Basil Marcus (671), Gerald Mosse (659) and Olivier Doleuze (571).
But the light, strong and hard-working rider does not care to think about potential records or total number of wins. Instead, he is focused on the task at hand aboard Ka Ying Rising, a horse he knew was heading for the top from the first moment he sat on him.
“When I trialled him before the race in June he gave me a great feel and I thought ‘OK, this guy is really good’, but you never really think about them going on to become the world’s best,” he says.
“What he did last season was great and what he’s done since has just been unbelievable. He has just kept on getting better. I have to thank the owners for keeping me on because they could have got anyone they wanted to ride in the world.”
It’s a story the Mauritian knows all too well. When Moreira passed on a ride, Teetan pounced. When Berry watched on from his sofa, Teetan capitalised. Now Purton, along with the rest of the racing world, will watch as Teetan takes centre stage once again ∎
