Nichola Yuen’s rapid start could threaten a record few thought would be broken
The 26-year-old held an 18 per cent strike rate this season after last Sunday’s fixture and sat second in the jockeys’ premiership
Owen Goulding (South China Morning Post) wrote this article on about October 6.
We are only 78 races and eight meetings into the 2026-27 season, but there are already signs that Nichola Yuen Hang-yiu could threaten a record that most thought would never be broken.
Back in 2020-21, Jerry Chau Chun-lok posted the most wins by an apprentice in a single season, slamming home 58 winners at a strike rate of 12 per cent.
Before that remarkable season, the record was held by Matthew Chadwick, who recorded 43 wins back in 2008-09, which shows just how imperious Chau was that campaign.
It almost landed him the Tony Cruz Award for top local rider in his opening salvo, with Vincent Ho Chak-yiu edging him out of that accolade by just three winners.
It would take something special for someone to take that record off him, but Yuen’s start to the season and her career in general have raised plenty of eyebrows.
It has been a brilliant start for the 26-year-old who, as of October 4 and eight meetings, has ridden eight winners for a strike rate of 18 per cent from 45 rides. She sits second in the jockeys’ premiership and only Zac Purton can boast a better strike rate of 20 per cent.
By the same stage in his first full campaign, Chau had ridden three winners from 40 rides, for a strike rate of 7 per cent. Now, are these statistics fairly irrelevant? Possibly, but they give us an indication of just how rapid this start has been for Yuen.
Both Yuen and Chau have followed very similar paths, with the former making her Hong Kong debut in April before her first full season, while Chau made his in May.
Chau rode 7 winners from 95 rides, while Yuen rode 14 winners from 108 rides, reinforcing the point that she has made a much faster start.
As a result, Yuen has already lost her 10lb claim, which will make things tougher on paper, but that could easily be offset by more ammunition from her master Ricky Yiu Poon-fai moving forward.
It surely has not gone unnoticed that five of her eight winners so far this season have been for Pierre Ng Pang-chi, with just two coming for Yiu.
Most of her rides have come for Yiu, but it is only marginally so over Ng – 17 for Yiu opposed to 11 rides for Ng – and you would imagine he would now be keen to exploit her clearly potent 7lb claim before it starts disappearing thanks to winners from other trainers.
Better and more frequent opportunities from Yiu will certainly help her cause, while other trainers will also be noticing how strong she has been out of the blocks.
Is it a stretch to say she can keep this momentum up to threaten Chau’s record? Many would say yes, but I have a feeling we could be talking about this again later in the season.
