Richard Kingscote answered a Hong Kong Jockey Club SOS earlier this year when injuries depleted the jockey roster and his reward is a return to Hong Kong in August as a licensed rider for the 2025-26 season.
He is officially licensed from July 17 and will arrive ahead of the campaign’s opening race day on the first weekend in September. His licence will run until February 17, 2026.
Kingscote, 38, has been in good form back in England this summer and won the G1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot last week on Time For Sandals, a filly trained by Harry Eustace, brother of Hong Kong trainer David Eustace. That came after a treble at Salisbury five days earlier and he has since bagged a double at Brighton.
After his Ascot victory Kingscote told ITV Racing: “I’ve been very fortunate with that stint (in Hong Kong), it came out of the blue and it ended up going very well.”
His 13-meeting debut licence in Hong Kong from late-February to early April helped the club out of a difficult spot after race falls had left Vincent Ho, Zac Purton, Angus Chung and Keith Yeung on the sidelines.
Things started slowly for Kingscote, with a total of only six rides through his first four meetings in the city, but he enjoyed a spectacular three wins from only three rides at Sha Tin on March 26 – one of those for Eustace – and at the final meeting of his short licence period he bowed out with an 11-1 winner.
Trainer Ricky Yiu provided three of Kingscote’s four wins, with the jockey riding at a win strike rate of 27 percent for the stable, and a top-three rate of 63 percent. His overall win rate, after being thrown in at the deep end, was 9.52 percent, which is a higher percentage than all bar five of the jockeys currently riding on the Hong Kong roster.
At the conclusion of his initial spell in Hong Kong, Kingscote said: “I want to come back here and I hope the club will invite me for another stint next season.” ∎
