The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) has given Vincent Ho the all-clear to return to trackwork riding as soon as tomorrow, Friday, July 4.
“I’m riding two tomorrow,” Ho told Idol Horse, “One for my old boss Caspar (Fownes) and another one for Francis (Lui). I’ll gallop one and see how I feel and then gallop the second horse. It’s time to push but at the same time I’ll be slowly getting back into trackwork.”
Ho has been working through intensive daily recovery and rehabilitation since he suffered a brain contusion and brain bleed in a race fall at Sha Tin on February 9. The Jockey Club assessment followed the all-clear the jockey received four days earlier from the Swiss Olympic Medical Centre, which has been key to helping with his recovery.
The HKJC statement from its licensing executive manager Terry Bailey said that the club’s chief medical officer had passed Ho as being fit to ride “in trackwork only”. A decision on his fitness to ride in barrier trials will be made at a future time.
The announcement came hours after Ho’s official, managed Instagram account posted photos and a video of him riding Golden Sixty in a paddock at Northern Horse Park, Japan, where Hong Kong’s three-time Horse of the Year is in retirement.
His account said: “Before I start riding trackwork on other horses, it’s great to have this moment to reconnect with someone that makes me feel so safe and helps me regain that feeling of being in sync with a horse,” and reiterated that Golden Sixty is “the one horse I trust 100%”.
Ho told Idol Horse recently, “You can’t force or rush anything and you can’t risk anything with the brain. I need to make sure it’s 100 per cent.” ∎
