Williams, Kah to ride at Singapore Gold Cup meeting

Jockey Craig Williams. Photo: craigwilliamsjockey.com.au

Singapore Turf Club Press Release

Australian jockeys Craig Williams (pictured above) and Jamie Kah have been granted one-day visiting jockeys’ licences to ride at the Singapore Gold Cup meeting on November 19.

Williams is booked by trainer Tim Fitzsimmons on Mr Black Back in the Group 1 Singapore Gold Cup (2000m) and Golden Monkey in the Class 1 race (1200m) held on the same day, while Kah will ride the Jerome Tan-trained Sacred Croix in the feature race.

 

Craig Williams


Melbourne multiple-champion jockey Craig Williams, 45, has ridden at three previous Singapore Gold Cup meetings and won the feature race twice. He first won the time-honoured staying feature with Bahana for trainer Stephen Gray in 2016, then finished seventh aboard Sky Rocket for Gray again in 2018, before claiming his second Singapore Gold Cup aboard the Lee Freedman-trained Mr Clint at his last pitstop visit to Kranji three years ago.

A winner of more than 2,300 races in a 29-year-long career, Williams rode his first Group 1 winner, Grand Echezeaux, for Freedman in The Australasian oaks back in 2000. In that same year, the former apprentice to his trainer-father Allan also put himself on the world map when he rode with success for English trainer Mick Channon, notching up 52 wins, including two at Group 1 level with Tobougg in the Dewhurst Stakes in the United Kingdoms and the Prix de la Salamandre in France.

After stints in Dubai and Hong Kong for four years, Williams made his Australian comeback in 2005, going on to claim notable Group 1 races like the Melbourne Cup (2019 with Vow And Declare), two Caulfield Cups (2011 with Southern Speed and 2012 with Dunaden), two Cox Plates (2006 with Fields Of Omagh and 2011 with Pinker Pinker) and one Golden Slipper (2006 with Miss Finland). His latest Group 1 achievement was atop Icebath in the Empire Rose Stakes on October 29, 2022.

Williams also enjoyed international acclaim in feature races such as Japan’s Grade 1 Tenno Sho (Spring) with Jaguar Mail in 2010, Group 1 Hong Kong Vase on Dunaden in 2011 and Dubai’s Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint on Ortensia in 2012. All-up, he has won 71 Group 1 winners thus far.

A five-time winner of the prestigious Scobie Breasley Medal, Williams also competed in the World Super Jockeys Series (now called World All-Star Jockeys Series) several times and won it once in 2007. He also took out the Meydan Masters, an international jockey’s challenge, in Dubai in 2012.

Currently licensed by Racing Victoria, Williams sits second on the Victorian metropolitan jockeys’ premiership on 17 winners. He has clocked in four winners from 25 rides in Singapore. Besides his two Singapore Gold Cup wins, he rode two other winners – Ace Aviva in 2009 and Nandowra in the now-defunct Group 3 Moonbeam Vase in 2012.

Williams goes to scale at 51.5kgs.

 

Jamie Kah

The 26-year-old Jamie Kah is one of the best female jockeys in Australia and she will be taking the reins in her first Singapore Group race at her second visit to Kranji. As the Dux of the South Australian Apprentice Academy, Kah rode in Kranji for three weeks in 2014 and booted home two winners, Just A Man and Twist Oliver from 15 rides.

Born to parents who are former Australian Olympic speed skaters, Kah has shown her athletic ability in the racing world since her debut in 2012 at Clare, South Australia, where the precocious lass notched 40 winners within six months and made history when she became the first apprentice jockey to claim the 2012/2013 Adelaide jockeys’ title since Jason Holder in 1995/1996.

After winning the Adelaide Jockeys’ Premiership for the third time in 2017/2018, Kah moved to Melbourne in 2019 and landed her first Group 1 win on Harlem in the Australian Cup. Kah has since gone on to take out six more Group 1 wins, with the latest victory on board Coolangatta in the Moir Stakes on September 23, 2022.

Kah has ridden over 1,100 winners in 10 years of riding and is the first female jockey to win the Victorian Jockeys Metropolitan Jockeys premiership in the 2020/2021 season with 105 winners. Currently licensed by Racing Victoria, she now sits on top of the Victorian metropolitan jockeys’ premiership on 26 winners.

Apart from Australia and Singapore, Kah has also ridden in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, where she competed in the Shergar Cup as part of the Ladies’ team alongside Hayley Turner and Nanako Fujita at Ascot in 2019.

Kah goes to scale at 52kgs.

iRace
Author: iRace