South African-trained Mauritian jockey Karis Teetan, third in the Hong Kong jockeys’ premiership last term, and touted as a potential title contender this time around, teamed up with two-time champion trainer Tony Cruz to land three races on Sunday afternoon’s Sha Tin card.
Teetan’s SA Jockey Academy fellow graduate Grant van Niekerk won the tenth and last race of the day – giving him his third winner of the season in just the third meeting.
He won on High Five for Tony Millard.
Read more about Grant van Niekerk here
Romantic Touch carried off the Class 1 Kwangtung Handicap Cup (1400m) and sparked a three-win spree for a new Cruz-Teetan alliance.
After that confident catch-me-if-you-can score, Teetan drove Cruz-trained up-and-comer Circuit Number Two to a narrow verdict in the Class 3 Dongguan Handicap (1600m). The duo completed a hat-track in the next, the Class 5 Zhuhai Handicap (1400m), thanks to Supreme Witness.
That tally represented two more wins than the pairing enjoyed in the whole of last season when Teetan had 12 rides for the Cruz stable, the last of which, back in June, yielded a Grade 3 success with California Whip.
The lightweight jockey arrived at the track without a win in the season’s opening two fixtures but there was no evidence of wilting confidence. Teetan’s handling of Romantic Touch inferred the opposite, in fact, marching to the lead and then winding up to hold off race favourite Rattan by 0.75 lengths.
- Hong Kong Jockey Club
