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Shafrizal Saleh will fly the banner for the Singapore Turf Club (STC) at the upcoming National Apprentice Race Series (NARS) 2020 in Australia from next week.
Last year's runner-up to Simon Kok Wei Hoong was selected to become the first Malayan Racing Association-licensed rider, and also, the first overseas rider along with an apprentice from New Zealand to be invited at the yearly month-long series.
Introduced in 2008, NARS has in the last 12 years become a well-established apprentice-only race series that sees apprentices from across Australia compete in a collection of races rotating between five states.
Apprentice and claiming jockey coach Matthew Pumpa, who held the same job at Racing Victoria before he joined STC last year, was instrumental to the invitation. The former Melbourne jockey himself took part in the series in the Perth leg when he was an apprentice jockey.
Pumpa will accompany, coach and assist Shafrizal at two or three of the five Legs. They both leave Singapore on Monday.
The series kicks off in Hobart, Tasmania on March 4 before moving to Ascot, Western Australia on March 11, Doomben, Queensland on March 18, Victoria, Sandown, Victoria on March 25, and wraps up at Murray Bridge, South Australia on April 1. In between, Shafrizal may get a chance to ride at regular meetings in South Australia thanks to an agreement from Morphettville trainer Richard Jolly to act as his master during that period.
As expected, Shafrizal, who is indentured locally to trainer Michael Clements and has never ridden overseas having honed his craft in only Malaysia and Singapore, was honoured and excited to get such a rare opportunity to test his mettle against the best apprentice jockeys across Australia.
"I'm very excited with that amazing opportunity. I've never ridden overseas, let alone visit Australia, so it'll be a great experience for me," said Shafrizal.
"I'm actually very surprised I was selected and I'd like to thank the Singapore Turf Club and Matthew Pumpa for picking me.
"I don't know much about Australian racing, but Matty has already spoken to me about the different courses and the pace there, as well as the different whip rules (can only whip five times and not consecutively before the 100m).
"I hope I can also ride in Adelaide for Mr Jolly. It'll be interesting to see a different set-up and compare the way he operates with what I'm used to here with Mr Clements.
"One aspect of riding I really want to improve on is tactics. I hope I can learn as much as possible in the one month there."
Like most jockeys' challenges, the winner by team will be determined by a point system. Based on last year's renewal, points were awarded for the top five placings in each leg of the series as follows; first – 7, second – 5, third – 3, fourth – 2 and fifth – 1.
A winner of 43 races in Malaysia, the Penang-born Shafrizal moved down South in 2016 but had to wait until his 89th ride to break the ice on the Mark Walker-trained Ahmar on April 16, 2017.
He has since racked up 28 winners at Kranji, with last year's second place to Kok (35 winners) on 14 winners capping his best season thus far.
This year has begun a bit more slowly with only one winner on the board, Passport To Rome on January 10. His last ride at Kranji before he embarks on his new adventure was Red Claw, his only booking at Saturday's meeting, and who ran a nice third in the opener.
"It's been a bit quiet this year, plus I just came back from a suspension (for careless riding) last week but that's the way it is at times. I just hope things will go well in Australia," he said.
"I may be Malaysian but I will definitely be representing Singapore there. I hope I can do Singapore proud."
It's not the first time that Singapore or Malaysian apprentice jockeys have participated in an overseas series. Asian Young Guns, the brainchild of Racing Victoria, used to be an annual competition that pitted apprentice jockeys from the Asia-Pacific region every year since 2009, with the likes of Mark Ewe, Tengku Rehaizat, Zawari Razali while others like Troy See, Joseph See have also ridden in similar apprentice jockeys challenges in India and South Korea respectively.
