KAH GOES OH SO CLOSE TO CREATING HISTORY IN HONG KONG IN THE INTERNATIONAL JOCKEYS' CHAMPIONSHIP

By Darren Winningham | Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Jamie Kah represented Australia at the LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship (IJC) at Happy Valley on Wednesday evening ... on her twenty-seventh birthday ... and what an evening it proved to be for the champion jockey.

Earlier in the week Kah was a little bit concerned about working out the Happy Valley circuit having never ridden there before, but a look at the tight turning track earlier in the week and then a pre-race walk and track assessment along with fellow IJC female jockey Hollie Doyle and her husband, and eventual joint winner of the IJC, Tom Marquand, seemed to settle the nerves.

Kah fired up in third race on the program, claiming victory aboard the heavily backed Douglas Whyte trained Hearty Wish with a polished display of riding.

That was just the confidence booster Kah needed, following which she was ready to launch into the series of IJC feature races.

In the second leg of the IJC, Kah rode the Frankie Lor trained Free Foal into third place to post 4 points.

In the final leg of the IJC she then rode the John Size trained Red Lion, going under by the narrowest of margins when beaten by the heavily backed favourite Adios trained by Frankie Lor and ridden by Silvestre De Sousa (who thus became the joint 2022 IJC winner with Marquand).

IF – Kah had got Red Lion home she would have become the first female winner in the history of the International Jockeys’ Championship.

Nearly the perfect Birthday present ... but, really, nothing was going to spoil what had been an amazing adventure for Kah as a first-time visitor to Hong Kong.

It won’t be the last though as Kah has already expressed her keenness to return to Hong Kong for the IJC meeting in 2023.

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