Australian Stephen Baster said yesterday he was hoping to arrive in Hong Kong with a Melbourne jockeys' championship on his resume when he takes up a retainer for Alex Wong Siu-tan next season.
'I'm second and only five behind Brett Prebble at the moment in the metropolitan premiership so I certainly haven't given up the chase,' Baster said.
Although the popular lightweight has failed to crack the Group One races this season in Australia, he has enjoyed a bumper year and comfortably leads the likes of Prebble, Greg Childs and Damien Oliver in the standings for the state of Victoria and all but reigning champion Prebble in the Melbourne table. 'I would have had an even better year but for a few suspensions,' Baster added.
Wong had originally applied for the right to retain South African Francois Naude but the arrangement fell through when the trainer's owners withdrew the necessary support. Wong last week was given the go-ahead to substitute Naude with Baster, who rode in Hong Kong as a Club jockey during the 1999/2000 season, scoring six winners from 122 rides.
Notably, 52 of those rides were for Wong, including wins on Race To Honour and Iron Tycoon, and Baster said the pair had discussed the possibility of a future retainership at that time.
'To say I was surprised to get this licence - I would say yes and no,' he said. 'I had a good working relationship with Alex when I was there before and we discussed it but nothing happened. But in the circumstances, I'm not really too surprised I got a call. I haven't had a chance to discuss things with Alex to be honest, so I don't know what to expect as far as that's concerned, but I understand he will have a lot of horses.'
