Ricky Yiu rode 11 winners between 1974 and 1980 when apprenticed to Jack Goswell, and was first licensed as a trainer in 1995/96, after learning the ropes as assistant trainer to Gordon Smyth and Eddie Lo. He achieved a lifelong ambition in 2019/20 when he was crowned Hong Kong Champion Trainer, having unexpectedly led his rivals for most of the campaign; his final tally of 67 wins meant that he held off second-placed Tony Cruz by two. Through 2021/22, Yiu nailed 53 wins to place fifth in the championship which included a 10-meeting win streak in May and June. He closed out another brilliant season in 2023/24 with 60 wins to place third in the trainers’ championship. Throughout that same season he also won his first Stewards’ Cup with Voyage Bubble, and joined Hong Kong racing’s elite by reaching the 1,000-win milestone as one of the city’s most decorated trainers at Sha Tin in May, 2024. He enjoyed another fine season in 2024/25, thanks to Voyage Bubble, who became only the second horse in Hong Kong racing history after River Verdon in 1993/94 to complete the Triple Crown by winning the Stewards’ Cup, Hong Kong Gold Cup and Champions & Chater Cup in the same season. One of his greatest early moments came with Fairy King Prawn’s success in the inaugural Hong Kong Sprint (1999). Three-time world champion sprinter Sacred Kingdom, one of Hong Kong’s all-time greats, was his outstanding stable star. Sacred Kingdom landed two Hong Kong Sprint wins, four straight Champion Sprinter titles (2007/08, 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11) and 2009/10 Horse of the Year honours. In 2010 he also sent out Ultra Fantasy to triumph in the Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama as, with Alex Lai on board, the pair became the first Hong Kong Chinese trainer-jockey partnership to triumph in an overseas Group 1 event. Following Sacred Kingdom’s retirement in the spring of 2012, another blistering speedster, Amber Sky, provided Yiu with further elite success at home and abroad. His son, Eric Yiu, was appointed the stable’s assistant trainer ahead of the 2018/19 season.
