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To spur himself to the limits of athleticism, how much hard work is Vincent Ho willing to put into his training?
The answer is: a lot. And it goes beyond simply hard work. Ho demonstrates that self-discipline and long-term commitment are the keys to achieving excellence in horse racing, a sport which is as unique as it is physically demanding.
As part of his daily routine, Ho rises at 3.45am to exercise the horses and feel their temperaments, he revealed to Varsity, a magazine produced by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, several years ago. He rides up to 10 horses every morning before breakfast, then spends the afternoon working on his fitness.
With up to 11 outings on a typical race day, intensive and intelligent training is required so that jockeys can build the optimal level of strength and stamina. Before each race day, Ho looks at the horses he will ride and develops the best strategies.
As a seasoned jockey, Ho understands that horse racing involves risk. It’s an extremely challenging sport, he said. The maximum speed of a racehorse can reach 70 km/h and the jockey is two metres off the ground throughout the race, crouching over, leaning all of his weight on his toes, which rest on thin strips of metal in the stirrups. It’s more demanding than Formula One racing, because a jockey is controlling a living, thinking creature, he noted.
Ho’s amazing journey to world-class sportsmanship started with his first horse-riding experience at 13 in 2003. Ho described how he became “obsessed” with riding. “I rode horses once at the weekend and spent the rest of the week thinking about it.”
As soon as Ho turned 16, he enrolled in the Apprentice Jockeys’ School at the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Racing Talent Training Centre. Standing slightly taller and heavier than most professional jockeys, coupled with his belief that he had started training much later than jockeys abroad, Ho was highly driven in his training. He also possesses the attributes of many elite athletes who train intelligently to enhance their performance constantly. Ho immersed himself into horse riding and spent long periods observing and researching the world’s outstanding jockeys.
Passionate about horses, Ho has developed the unique ability to forge special connections with individual horses, like many other distinguished jockeys. For instance, he has taken the time to cultivate a special bond with three-time Horse of the Year Golden Sixty. Ho always visits Golden Sixty in his stable after they’ve raced together. Sometimes Ho treats him with carrots, his favourite snack.
Hard work and dedication have paid off. Ho received the Champion Apprentice Award when he began racing in Hong Kong. He steadily worked his way up and continued improving his skills and stamina throughout the seasons. In recent years, Ho has claimed a whopping 12 Group 1 titles, most often with Golden Sixty.
In 2023, Ho enjoyed a personal best season with a total of 96 wins in Hong Kong, thereby securing his fourth Tony Cruz Award for best local rider. The 33-year-old also reached 500 Hong Kong wins, one of his milestones, in March.
Ho has cemented his status as a world-class athlete by securing a place in the horse racing history books: he is the first Asian jockey to win all three legs of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series – aboard none other than Golden Sixty – and he became the first Asian Jockey to win the Group 1 Champions Mile in 2020 – he’s won the title every year since aboard Golden Sixty.
By continuing riding during Hong Kong racing’s off-season, Ho aims to ensure that he will not only stay in form ahead of the new Hong Kong season, but that he can hone his skills through the experience of competing abroad.
Ho rode a short stint during the off-season in 2018 and claimed his first UK win at Haydock at the first attempt. He repeated that success and secured winners in Ascot and at three courses in Scotland during the 2019 off-season. “It’s good when I have the off-season because I can ride at different tracks and I can learn a lot more,” Ho said in an interview at that time. “It’s a lot better to go around the world, especially in Britain. The horsemanship is really good … It’s a great place for me to learn.”
Behind Ho’s success is years of dedicated training and occasional sorties abroad to hone his craft continuously. Like many home-grown world-class athletes in Hong Kong, Ho demonstrates the exemplary commitment of elite athletes to their sports. And, more importantly, hard work pays off.