Weichong Marwing’s Online Instincts Have Diogenes In The Derby Mix
Weichong Marwing knows what it’s like to be at the very top of his game. Roll back a decade, a quarter-century even, and the South African was an ace jockey leaving a global footprint in some of the world’s richest races.
In Hong Kong he won the Derby, the Hong Kong Mile, a couple of QEII Cups, a pair of Champions & Chater Cups, the Classic Mile and Champions Mile across 11 years, riding the likes of Olympic Express, Viva Pataca and Dan Excel for two of the biggest names around: Ivan Allan and John Moore.
In Dubai, he teamed up with Mike de Kock in the days when the trainer would land at Nad Al Sheba with a power-packed team and Marwing would ride them to victory like he was shelling peas.
“Everything I put my legs across at Nad Al Sheba was flying in,” Marwing tells Idol Horse and he credits De Kock for that.
They had Right Approach win the Dubai Duty Free, there was Victory Moon, Grand Emporium, Yard Arm and Asiatic Boy to list a few, and the top-class mare Irridescence who they took to Hong Kong for one of Marwing’s QEII Cup wins.
It’s 13 years since Marwing left Hong Kong, though; almost five years since injury forced him to stop riding racehorses; four since he took on five horses and decided instead to make a go of training them – he now has 25.
His base is Turffontein in Johannesburg’s southern suburbs and it’s from there that he’s preparing Diogenes, second-favourite for Saturday’s G2 South African Derby. Everything is done from the ground. Despite his elite jockeyship, riding trackwork is no longer an option for the 56-year-old.
“I had a bad race fall,” Marwing says. “I had back issues and developed ataxia cerebellum, which means I don’t really have balance: I can go for months feeling perfect and other days it hits you and the balance is gone. You can’t have no balance if you’re riding horses.
“But I love training. I gave it lots of thought and it made sense to me. I enjoy the training aspect and being around the horses, watching them mature and grow.”
Marwing’s old comrade De Kock has four decades of training behind him and he and his son Mathew are the men with the Derby favourite: the filly Curious Girl, winner of the Oaks Trial.
“Mike and I, we achieved a lot together,” Marwing says. “I’ve only got a small string and not a lot of clients; he’s got the stock that he can actually compare his horses with, I don’t. It would be great to win the Derby but it’s not about beating Mike, nothing like that.
“It could open doors where people could say, ‘You know, this guy was a successful jockey, he seems to be slowly climbing the ranks with a small team, maybe give him a chance.’”
Marwing has given Diogenes a chance. The three-year-old arrived in January, a cast–off of sorts, having won one of six races for champion trainer Justin Snaith. But the gelding has won his last two races from three since he joined Marwing, including the Listed WSB Hawwaam Stakes (formerly the Derby Trial).
“He was put in an online sale and I looked at him, looked at the video footage, and I liked the horse. Being a jockey before, you have a pretty good assessment of what should stay, it’s a lot of guesswork but he stood out like a horse who would be a Derby candidate. His owner has almost received his money back from what we bought the horse for (R281,000; US$16,700).”
Marwing had the fifth in last year’s Derby, Grey Jet, but the testing ground that day was no help. That gelding was sold to Hong Kong to race out of Mark Newnham’s stable and Marwing is hoping a Diogenes success might attract new overseas owners, perhaps in syndicates, especially with the rand being low in value.
When Marwing left Hong Kong, he did so because he wasn’t getting the top rides and he wanted to be with his children again.
“Hong Kong was great to me, it’s an experience that I will treasure forever,” he says. “But if you’re not getting quality rides there, you’re just going around earning bread and butter.”
Marwing was no ‘bread and butter’ jockey and if Diogenes can win the Derby, he might just be on his way to showing that he’s more than a ‘bread and butter’ trainer.
This Week In Horse Racing History
The incredible Secretariat was foaled on March 30, 1970 at The Meadow in Virginia by the Chenerys in whose colours he raced to victory in the U.S. Triple Crown. ‘Big Red’ raced 21 times for 16 wins, his most iconic perhaps being his 31-length Belmont Stakes win of 1973.
Another Triple Crown winner, Whirlaway, was born on April 2, 1938 at Calumet Farm, Kentucky. After his Triple Crown victory, the colt won the 1941 Travers Stakes, making him the first horse to win all four races.
Heavy rain in Dubai caused the postponement of the 1997 Dubai World Cup, but after helicopters were used to help dry out the Nad Al Sheba track, the race went ahead on April 3. Sheikh Mohammed’s five-year-old Singspiel won the race, his only start on dirt, and the victory came in between successes in the G1 Canadian International, G1 Japan Cup, G1 Coronation Cup and G1 Juddmonte International Stakes.
Reads of the Week
The colt and geldings that took their places in the 1996 Australian Derby might have been the best crop of Australian three-year-olds in living memory and they produced an epic race. In this engrossing oral history, Adam Pengilly taps the memories of some of those involved in the clash between Octagonal, Saintly, Filante and Nothin’ Leica Dane.
Nichola Yuen madekes her debut as a licensed apprentice in Hong Kong this week and in his Idol Thoughts column Shane Dye looks at the women pioneers who paved the way for riders like Yuen, and shares his observations about the important attributes women jockeys bring to race-riding.
Japan’s 2011 Dubai World Cup hero Victoire Pisa helped lift spirits in the aftermath of that year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami and gave his jockey Mirco Demuro an experience he will never forget. The old stallion is now in Turkey where he sired the winners of last year’s Derby and Oaks, but with the current covering season only two days in, David Morgan’s story tells how he was sidelined for a week or two with an eye watering ailment.
With the G1 Santa Anita Derby this weekend, it’s a good time to pull this article from the archives, David Morgan’s profile of Juan Hernandez and his remarkable journey from a young boy watching his father race quarter horses in Veracruz, Mexico, to southern California’s top rider, backed by the powerful Bob Baffert stable.
Racing Photo Of The Week
Jockey Jose Ortiz up in his irons celebrating aboard Magnitude as the U.S. raider crosses the line first in the 30th anniversary running of the Dubai World Cup at Meydan.
Date
28 March, 2026
Photographer
Dubai Racing Club
Location
Meydan
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Jockey Jose Ortiz up in his irons celebrating aboard Magnitude as the U.S. raider crosses the line first in the 30th anniversary running of the Dubai World Cup at Meydan.
The war between Iran on one side and Israel, the U.S. and its allies on the other, meant the lead-in to the Dubai World Cup was played out to a backdrop at times of the UAE’s air defence systems knocking out drones and missiles. They interrupted race meetings prior to the big event, notably Super Saturday on February 28 when it all first kicked off, and with airspace and runways closed or working at much reduced capacity, many intended runners did not make the journey there.
But the event went ahead – cloaked by a screen of positive-only social media in keeping with government sanctions of prison sentences and fines against those who spread misinformation or contradict the official narrative – albeit with less participants, a smaller crowd and fewer media covering it on the ground than normal. Yet Sheikh Mohammed and the Dubai Racing Club had ensured the presence of the top drawer Ombudsman, and secured the participation of the world’s best horse Calandagan, as well as the world’s best dirt runner Forever Young. The last named was a solid favourite to win the Dubai World Cup itself, but Jose Ortiz riding the U.S. raider Magnitude had other ideas. The jockey took his mount to the front when the starting gates opened, stayed there and unleashed pent-up emotion when he passed the post a length in front of the Japanese superstar.
Global Blackbook
Satono Aladdin’s daughter Satono Glow looked like a two-year-old on her way to the top when she took her career record to two wins from as many starts in the G3 Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes at Flemington last weekend. The New Zealand-bred filly had debuted with a smart half-length maiden win at Warwick Farm in early March, but her second win was more impressive.
The John O’Shea and Tom Charlton-trained filly picked up sharply with 200m to go in the 1200m contest and drew away under Jamie Melham for a three-length score. Satono Aladdin won the 2017 G1 Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo during his time as one of Japan’s leading milers, and stands at Rich Hill Stud in New Zealand. Satono Glow was a NZ$260,000 buy out of Karaka Book 1.
A new Glow is on the scene 🌟
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) March 28, 2026
Satono Glow with a highly impressive G3 win down the straight to make it two from two!@jamieleemelham with an early double 🥇🥇@johnoshearacing pic.twitter.com/kFTeHhGpJU
World Horse Racing Calendar: What’s Coming Up
Doncaster Mile Day
Randwick, Australia, April 4
The G1 Randwick Guineas winner Sheza Alibi and the horse that was second that day, the G1 Rosehill Guineas winner Autumn Boy are set to clash in the Doncaster Mile, with the former allotted 49kg in the handicap and the latter 52kg. Also expected to take their places are Linebacker, Gringotts and Sixties, winner of the G2 Phar Lap Stakes last time.
The day also features the G1 TJ Smith Stakes in which Tentyris will aim to regain the winning thread after his G1 Newmarket Handicap defeat. But he faces recent G1 Canterbury Stakes winner Joliestar as well as Giga Kick. Meanwhile, Green Spaces and Observer, second and third in the Rosehill Guineas, head the field in the G1 Australian Derby, and the G1 Inglis Sires’ for two-year-olds could feature G1 Golden Slipper runner-up Streisand.
South African Derby Day
Turffontein, South Africa, April 4
The South African Derby is the final leg of the South African Triple Crown, the first two races being the G2 Gauteng Guineas, won by Splittheeights, and the G1 SA Classic, won by the Gauteng Guineas second Grand Empire. But Grand Empire is slated to take on the older horses, including See It Again, in the G1 Premier’s Champions Challenge that same afternoon.
That leaves an open field for the G2 SA Derby, in which the filly Curious Girl will aim to extend her win streak to four. The card also includes the G1 Empress Club Stakes, featuring the crack mare Double Grand Slam, and the G1 Computaform Sprint.
Queen Elizabeth Stakes Day
Randwick, Australia, April 11
Australia’s latest wonder filly, the unbeaten Autumn Glow, is likely to take her place in the G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes over 2000m in an attempt to take her win streak to 12. The four-year-old won her latest start, the G1 George Ryder Stakes, by three lengths easing down.
All Aged Stakes Day
Randwick, Australia, April 18
Sydney’s Autumn Carnival continues with the G1 All Aged Stakes over 1400m when the likes of last year’s winner Jimmysstar, the 2023 winner Giga Kick, and the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes winner Tentyris could line up, though the outcome of the TJ Smith Stakes this weekend might have some bearing on that.
