Ricky Yiu is bearing down on a fourth straight 50-plus win season in Hong Kong and the 2019/20 champion trainer is thrilled with the current campaign, hailing Voyage Bubble’s Triple Crown success last month as a ‘peak’ moment not only during the 2024/25 term but chiefly across his three decades long training career, which commenced in 1995/96.
Voyage Bubble wins Hong Kong’s Triple Crown (Pic – HKJC)
Yiu, 67, first worked with former trainers Gordon Smyth and Eddie Lo after starting out as an apprentice jockey in the early 1970s.
He has 1,065 training wins and has enjoyed incredible highs with turf heroes Sacred Kingdom, Fairy King Prawn, Ultra Fantasy and Amber Sky.
He has also won elite level races overseas in Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.
“My favourite moment this season is, of course, when I won the Triple Crown with Voyage Bubble. That’s a dream come true. It’s very, very special. Over my 30-year training career, this is a real thrill, this is a peak,” Yiu said. “To win these three races, the Triple Crown, is like a dream. You need a very talented horse to do that.”
Voyage Bubble rewrote Hong Kong racing history for Yiu by becoming the second Triple Crown winner after only River Verdon (1993/94) to complete the stamina-testing three-race challenge, prevailing in the HK$13 million Gr1 Stewards’ Cup (1600m), HK$13 million Gr1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) and HK$13 million Gr1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2400m) – all in the same season and each time ridden by James McDonald.
Ricky Yiu is the second trainer in history to saddle a Triple Crown hero (Pic – HKJ)
Yiu’s 49 wins puts him third with Caspar Fownes and trailing only the championship-leading John Size (63) and second placed David Hayes (54) ahead of Sunday’s 81st of 88 scheduled fixtures this racing season, which concludes at Happy Valley on Wednesday.
“I’m happy with where I am now in the championship. I want to keep it up until the end of the season,” said Yiu, who saddles seven runners at Sha Tin, led by Straight Arron (135lb) and Nimble Nimbus (117lb) in the HK$4.2 million Gr3 Premier Plate Handicap (1800m).
“Straight Arron is doing fine. He’s a very nice horse and he’ll be very competitive. It’s an interesting race for him even with his rating (116). He tries very hard and since he came to me, he’s had a few good runs,” Yiu said.
Straight Arron jumps from gate two with Matthew Poon up, who heads the race for the Tony Cruz Award as the season’s leading homegrown jockey on 36 wins. The duo seeks another big prize after winning the HK$5.35 million Gr2 Chairman’s Trophy (1600m) in March.
Six-time winner Nimble Nimbus, whose career-high was success in the 2024 HK$4.2 million Gr3 Centenary Vase Handicap (1800m) last season, also tackles the Premier Plate with French rider Antoine Hamelin booked.
Nimble Nimbus (No. 12) is Group 1-placed in Hong Kong (Pic – HKJC)
“This will most likely be the last run of his career. He won a lot of prize money (HK$13.55 million) and I’m very pleased with his achievements and career. He might be a surprise, this weekend, and according to his pedigree he enjoys the wet track, if there’s rain around,” Yiu said. “He’s a Group 3 winner and he’s been very, very consistent.”
Three-year-old Blazing Wukong, raced by Jason Chan who also owns Nimble Nimbus, impressed on debut for Yiu and returns in Sunday’s Class 4 Diamond Handicap (1200m).
“It was a very good win for his first start. It looks like he’ll run well again. He’s a good quality up-and-coming horse – a nice horse in the making,” Yiu said.
Prominent Singapore owner Lim Siah Mong, who races the ‘Lim’s’ series of horses, has his first Hong Kong-based runner compete at Sha Tin when Lim’s Shivano debuts on Sunday in the Class 3 Amethyst Handicap (1400m) for trainer Mark Newnham.
Sunday’s 11-race fixture at Sha Tin commences at 10h00 with the Class 4 Ruby Handicap (1000m) and also features the HK$4.2 million Gr3 Premier Cup Handicap (1400m).
