‘Mal’ Gallop... Choi Sidae Jockey Achieves 800 Career Wins

Jockey Choi Si-dae reached the milestone of 800 career wins on the 25th at the 2nd race of LetsRun Park Busan-Gyeongnam.

This victory is an achievement 19 months after reaching 700 wins in February last year and is the result of persistent effort as a jockey for 17 years.

On that day, the horse ‘Ajanta (2 years old, female, owner Lee Jong-hoon, trainer Baek Gwang-yeol)’ ridden by Jockey Choi Si-dae had a disappointing start in the early part of the race, but as the race progressed, Choi and the horse showed fantastic harmony and began to surge forward.

By the time they passed the first corner, they had risen to 4th place, then aggressively cut inside and succeeded in overtaking to 1st place upon reaching the straightaway. From there, they widened the gap to the 2nd place horse by 8 lengths and secured the victory.

Choi Sidae, the master.

Jockey Choi Si-dae, who debuted in 2007, has ridden 5,959 races as of the end of August, showing stable skills with a winning rate of 13.4% and a place rate of 25.1%, and has lifted the trophy in 25 graded races.

True to his nickname as the ‘August Jockey’ who soars every summer, he fully demonstrated his abilities during this year’s night racing period as well. He participated in a total of 40 races, achieving 11 wins with a winning rate of 27.5% and a place rate of 32.5%, showing his strong performance.

He is also well known among racing officials as the ‘Man of Upright Life.’ From early this year until the end of August, he participated in 299 races over 32 weeks (averaging more than 9 races per week), proving his diligence alongside Jockey Song Jae-cheol of Seoul Race Park with the highest number of starts this year.

After achieving 800 wins, Jockey Choi Si-dae said, “Rather than focusing on the record number of wins, I will concentrate even more on each race I ride to achieve good results.”

He added, “I always feel the love and interest in horse racing through the support and criticism of fans. I will ride more carefully and work harder with gratitude to the fans who cheer for me.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.