Three-pound solution won't help struggling local riders

The latest chatter doing the rounds is that local jockeys might be given a three-pound allowance to better enable them to compete with the internationals and stop their collective slide toward the bottom of the table.

Whether or not this is the right answer, something has to be done.

One of the Jockey Club's most important charters is the nurturing of quality, home-grown horse industry personnel and, despite the allocation of huge resources, there has not been a top Hong Kong jockey since the glory days of Tony Cruz.

In theory, Hong Kong should be producing jockeys at a prodigious rate.

Chinese boys have a genetic predisposition to be smaller than their expatriate counterparts and the facilities at their disposal here are world class. But they are struggling.

On Saturday, relief was probably the dominant emotion for Alex Yu Kin-shing when he won on Cenamira. Yu had been winnerless all season, as he was for most of last season and not for an absence of ability. He'd been starved for opportunity, getting only 92 rides across 75 race meetings.

As we've observed before in this column, the local ranks contain some very good jockeys. Eddie Lai Wai-ming is a solid rider who holds his own against the highest quality roster anywhere, and has ridden a Group One winner for the now-retired Ivan Allan - Self Flit in the 2003 Classic Mile.