The 2025/26 Hong Kong racing season concluded at Happy Valley on 15 July. While Zac Purton secured his ninth Hong Kong champion jockey title and Ka Ying Rising and Romantic Warrior were jointly crowned Hong Kong Horse of the Year, another contest of particular significance was unfolding among the locally trained riders.
Jerry Chau finished the season with 48 wins, the highest total among jockeys trained by The Hong Kong Jockey Club. Under the Club’s criteria, which determine the winner according to the number of races won during the season, Chau became the recipient of the Tony Cruz Award for the first time.
The award was far from an inevitable achievement for Chau. During the 2020/21 season, his first complete campaign in Hong Kong, he rode 58 winners and set what was then a record for the most wins by an apprentice jockey in a single season. However, he finished three wins behind Vincent Ho, who recorded 61 victories, and narrowly missed out on the Tony Cruz Award.
Several years later, having lost his apprentice allowance and experienced the inevitable fluctuations and increased competition of life as a fully fledged jockey, Chau returned as a more mature rider. He finished the 2025/26 season as the leading locally trained jockey and was also selected alongside Vincent Ho and Lyle Hewitson to represent Hong Kong in the Shergar Cup jockeys’ competition.
The significance of the Tony Cruz Award extends far beyond a simple comparison of win totals among local jockeys. The award is presented to the graduate of the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Apprentice Jockeys’ School who rides the most winners during the season. In effect, it provides an annual measure of the success of Hong Kong’s local jockey development system.
The award bears Tony Cruz’s name because he is the most representative product of that system and an important witness to Hong Kong racing’s transformation from the amateur era into the professional age.
The Club established the Apprentice Jockeys’ School in 1972 to provide systematic professional training for local riders. Cruz was a member of its inaugural intake. He came from a racing family—his father, Johnny Cruz, was a prominent jockey during Hong Kong’s amateur racing era—but family influence alone did not take him to the international stage. The professional training and career pathway provided by the school were equally important.
After beginning his riding career during the 1973/74 season, Cruz gradually developed from a local apprentice into one of the most successful jockeys in Hong Kong racing history.
During his career in the saddle, Cruz was crowned Hong Kong champion jockey on six occasions and rode 946 winners in the city. He also competed successfully in Europe, where he partnered leading racehorses including Triptych to victory at Group 1 level.
At a time when it was highly unusual for a Hong Kong jockey to establish himself in European racing, Cruz’s achievements proved that a locally trained rider could compete against the world’s leading jockeys at the highest level.
Cruz retired from riding in 1996 and became a trainer. He subsequently won the Hong Kong trainers’ championship twice and prepared numerous top-class racehorses.
In April 2026, Cruz recorded his 1,600th Hong Kong win as a trainer, becoming only the third trainer in Hong Kong racing history, after John Moore and John Size, to reach the milestone. Combined with the 946 victories he achieved as a jockey, Cruz has been directly involved in more than 2,500 Hong Kong wins in his two careers.
From apprentice jockey and champion rider to champion trainer, his journey represents one of the most complete success stories produced by Hong Kong’s racing talent development system.
However, the achievements of the Apprentice Jockeys’ School have not been written by Cruz alone. Over the years, riders including Vincent Ho, Matthew Chadwick, Derek Leung, Matthew Poon and Jerry Chau have all entered professional racing through the same pathway.
Graduates including Francis Lui, Ricky Yiu, Danny Shum, Frankie Lor and Manfred Man later became trainers after ending their riding careers, with several going on to win the Hong Kong trainers’ championship.
The school has therefore produced far more than jockeys. It has nurtured generation after generation of racing professionals with a deep understanding of horses and competition, enabling them to contribute to the development of Hong Kong racing in a wide range of roles.
In 2022, the Apprentice Jockeys’ School celebrated its 50th anniversary. In the same year, the Club upgraded its existing racing development training structure and established the Racing Talent Training Centre.
The Centre comprises the Apprentice Jockeys’ School, which develops riding talent, and the Racing Talent School, which provides training for non-riding racing professionals.
Its curriculum has long extended beyond riding skills. Training covers horse care, stable management, physical conditioning, sports science, languages, information technology and financial management. Some programmes have also been accredited by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications.
Further improvements were made to the Centre’s stables, horse-washing areas and teaching facilities in 2025, demonstrating that Hong Kong’s racing training system continues to evolve.
The recent winners of the Tony Cruz Award also reflect this continuing legacy. Vincent Ho has won the award four times, while Matthew Chadwick was successful during the 2021/22 season.
Ellis Wong claimed the award in 2023/24 after riding 46 winners. In 2024/25, Matthew Poon and Derek Leung both finished the season with 36 wins, with Poon taking the award after recording more third-place finishes.
The baton finally passed to Jerry Chau in 2025/26. Each winner has followed a different path, but all were developed through the same local training system.
The decision to place Tony Cruz’s name on the award is therefore not simply intended to commemorate a champion of the past. His name represents a standard for every young rider trained in Hong Kong.
It is a reminder that a graduate of the Apprentice Jockeys’ School can become a champion jockey, compete successfully on the international stage and, after retiring from riding, develop into a world-class trainer.
From the first intake of apprentices in 1972 to Jerry Chau’s first Tony Cruz Award in 2026 after a 48-win season, the environment, structure and competitive nature of Hong Kong racing have changed enormously.
However, the school’s most important mission has remained the same: to provide young people with a route into the racing industry and allow their ability, discipline and determination to decide how far they can travel.
More than half a century ago, Tony Cruz began his journey along that path. Today, Jerry Chau and a new generation of locally trained jockeys continue to race along the same road.
The Apprentice Jockeys’ School has produced more than a succession of champions. Its greatest legacy is a system capable of allowing new champions to emerge, generation after generation.