WHEN Basil Marcus was a tiny 14-year-old at South Africa's main jockey academy in Durban, he was the last of his group to get signed on to a trainer. It was touch and go whether he had a future as a jockey.
Eighteen months into his training he got his break. He was signed on, came second in his first race and rode 17 winners in the next six months. He hasn't looked back since.
Last season Marcus, now 37, was Hong Kong's champion jockey for the third successive season, riding 75 winners. He has been in the top three jockeys wherever he has ridden for 18 of the past 20 years - and in the remaining two years he was fourth.
It is an astonishing record, though perhaps not surprising given that, once he finally got out of the stalls with his apprenticeship to Cape Town's leading trainer, he was champion apprentice there for the next three years and champion jockey, both in Cape Town and nationally, for two of those three.
When Hong Kong's new racing season gets under way at Sha Tin tomorrow, Marcus will be out there to have what he knows will be a great season, particularly as he's riding for champion trainer Ivan Allan - the best trainer he has worked for in his career, he says.
'Hong Kong is so different, so exciting. I don't think I could ever feel as motivated anywhere as I do here,' he says.