One man’s misfortune can be another’s gain and for Richard Kingscote the crashing falls at Sha Tin last weekend, and the four injured jockeys left on recovery’s hard road, offer an unexpected opportunity for a rider who is now looking forward to experiencing Hong Kong racing’s famous speed.
“The racing is tight in Hong Kong, it’s competitive, and there’s a lot of speed on from the starting stalls which is something I enjoy, so hopefully I can click with that. It’s going to be interesting and I’m looking forward to it,” Kingscote tells Idol Horse.
And so he might: despite his seemingly level manner, Kingscote’s love of zooming around on high-powered motorcycles is no secret. But not even a chance to race on two-wheels could keep him from accepting the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s offer to ride on four legs around Sha Tin and Happy Valley.
“I was actually booked in to get my motorbike racing licence next week and the first (motorcycle) race meeting is at the start of March, but I’ve obviously cancelled that now. That can wait,” he says.
Kingscote, 38, and another unexpected call-up, Declan McDonogh, 45, are among the more experienced jockeys working day to day out of the weighing rooms of Britain and Ireland, and that maturity is what the Hong Kong Jockey Club has opted for in licensing them for the short-term. Kingscote will arrive in Hong Kong to start riding on February 19, on the heels of the high-profile regulars Hollie Doyle and Tom Marquand, and the same day as Queensland rider James Orman, while McDonogh will get to Hong Kong for the Sha Tin meeting a few days later.
Unlike Doyle and Marquand, who will zip in for just two meetings this Sunday and next Wednesday to overcome the shortfall in riding options, Kingscote, McDonogh and Orman will be in town through the meeting on April 2. Meanwhile, Ryan Moore will join for three consecutive meetings starting with the Happy Valley fixture on February 26.
It will be the first time to Hong Kong for Kingscote when he steps ground-side at Chek Lap Kok airport early next week, but he is not without international experience. In fact, he first headed away from home to gain winter riding experience far from England some 20 years ago.
He went to Australia and picked up a winner at Kembla Grange way back when, but then spent most winters since riding through the cold months on Britain’s all-weather tracks: until he tried out Florida in early 2023, and last winter he clinched a coveted Japan Racing Association (JRA) slot.
“Hong Kong has always been on the list as somewhere I’d like to experience but it hasn’t happened until now. It’s a tremendous opportunity,” Kingscote says.
“With the accidents the other day they were looking for jockeys to go there at short notice and my name popped up, so when they asked, of course I was interested. It fits for both sides, I think.
“I’ve been riding for twenty years and besides riding in Australia as an apprentice I didn’t do winter stints until the last few years. But I was lucky enough to go back to Australia and ride in the Cup a few years ago, which was an unbelievable trip. I go under the radar a little bit: I’m quiet and I just chip away.”
That unassuming chipping has brought him an Epsom Derby win – the biggest race an English jockey could wish for – and that trip to Flemington for the Melbourne Cup was on the horse that really made his name, Brown Panther, part-owned by former footballer Michael Owen and trained by Tom Dascombe who was Kingscote’s main patron for several years.
“‘Panther’ was massively important to my career because he had a longevity to go with his class. I think I rode him in six different countries and I was only a young lad back then, really, so he was great for my career, he gave me a platform,” he says, reflecting back a decade or so to when his triumphs aboard the game stayer included the G1 Irish St Leger, G2 Dubai Gold Cup and G2 Goodwood Cup.
That brought the welcome attention that the hard-working rider, an introvert by his own admission, might otherwise have never received. Karl Burke booked him for Havana Grey and they took the G1 Flying Five in 2018, and in the years since his stock has risen, albeit quite unobtrusively, with steady momentum.
“The likes of Sir Michael (Stoute) started to put me on his horses and the snowball started to roll,” he says.
Stoute, a master trainer and among the sport’s all-time greats by any measure, entrusted him with the ride on Desert Crown: Stoute’s other Derby winners were ridden by Ryan Moore, Kieren Fallon and Walter Swinburn, so he’s in good company. They won the G2 Dante Stakes and the Derby together and the colt looked like a champion in the making until injuries ended such notions.
“The Derby was something fantastic and something I’d never really expected for myself. He could well have been a superstar, and I really thought he was, so it’s a shame but that’s horse racing,” he says.
The G1 Champion Stakes also went his and Stoute’s way thanks to Bay Bridge, but with Sir Michael now retired, he is hoping to connect with another major British stable in the season ahead to bolster his options as a freelance rider.
“I intend riding out a lot of places come the summer,” he says, “but Ralph Beckett has been in contact, so I will try to get myself in there a couple of days a week. He’s a powerful stable now so I would be looking to give him a lot of priority.”
Riding for bona fide ‘Group 1 stables’ and winning England’s pinnacle race are a long way from his starting point in a non-racing family growing up in seaside Weston-super-Mare. When he was 12 years old, his mother bought a pony and he and his brother started to have lessons. He loved the speed, of course, and started saying he wanted to be a jockey.
He went to the British Racing School and Classic-winning trainer Roger Charlton gave him his chance as an apprentice, providing the support he needed to get started. Then came the move north to Owen’s Cheshire yard with Dascombe: there Kingscote established a reputation as a hard-working, loyal stable jockey with no shortage of tactical talent and strength, and a particular skill for riding his boss’s horses to victory around the tight turns of Chester.
That should help with the challenges Happy Valley and Sha Tin pose, although he recognises that he is stepping into a sphere that in certain aspects will be alien to anything he has experienced before. With that in mind he has already sought some advice.
“I had a brief chat with Ryan (Moore), not so much about the facilities and how the days work, but more about the riding element,” he says. “Obviously, as we know, the racing there is unbelievably competitive and very tight, and the stewarding is different to what I’d be used to, so we talked about things like that. Those are things that I’ll have to get used to quickly, but at the same time, I’ve been lucky enough to have raced in a lot of jurisdictions and I’ve been able to adapt.
“I’ve watched bits of racing from Hong Kong on TV, and having Harry (Bentley) and Andrea (Atzeni) going over there from Britain we have that added interest in what’s happening in Hong Kong.”
Hong Kong will join the list of about 15 jurisdictions Kingscote has ridden in at one time or another, a list that includes – as well as the aforementioned – France, Ireland, Canada, Bahrain, Turkey, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Italy.
His spell in Japan last year was also good preparation and after a slow start he left with five wins from 71 rides across seven weekends.
“I enjoyed Japan, it was a bit slow going being my first time there and it took a little while to get to know people, but it was a great experience. As a racing jurisdiction, it’s a brilliantly-run place, phenomenal to see really,” he says.
Now it’s time to see what Hong Kong has to offer, and as a rider in the prime of his career, he feels prepared to approach the challenge.
“I’ve been around a while but I’m fit and healthy, I’ve not had too many injuries so I’ve been lucky in that regard, and my weight’s good: I’ll do some work to get it down a little bit for Hong Kong but I’ve been very lucky with my weight,” he says.
“I feel fit and sharp and I’ll be going there to try my best. I’m determined to make the most of it.” ∎
