Jerry Chau credits his victory in last year’s G3 Korea Sprint (1200m, sand) with giving him the confidence required to produce a brilliant 2025/26 Hong Kong season, and the jockey returns to Seoul Racecourse this Sunday (6 September) chasing consecutive wins in the race.

While it was aboard Manfred Man’s Self Improvement that Chau ploughed through the deep Seoul sand to snare the Korea Sprint 12 months ago, he will be looking to dethrone that galloper when he partners another Hong Kong raider in Beauty Waves this weekend.

“It definitely gave me confidence,” said Chau of Self Improvement’s gutsy half-length success, which proved the precursor to a season that featured 48 wins in Hong Kong and his first Tony Cruz Award for the term’s leading local rider.

“Last season, after the Korea winner I brought a heap of confidence back and hopefully this year we can do the same. We will be trying hard. I’m so happy to be back riding in Korea and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Beauty Waves and Self Improvement are joined by a third Hong Kong galloper, Gorgeous Win, in a 16-horse field that boasts runners from Japan and Korea.

Beauty Waves must overcome barrier 13; however, Chau is confident the Cruz-trained six-year-old is in top order after putting him through his paces on Thursday morning (3 September).

“I galloped him and I feel like he handled the track very well. He’s healthy and his fitness is good, so I am somewhat confident,” said the 26-year-old of Beauty Waves, who finished third in his only run on the all-weather surface in Hong Kong but was a pre-import winner on the Polytrack in Ireland.

“The draw is difficult, but the horse has early speed so if he can jump fast enough to lead or follow a few, I would be happy with that. I think he will handle surface.”

It is the depth of the Seoul sand that often proves most challenging for the overseas visitors to Korea’s international races; however, it was no issue for Self Improvement last year as he joined the Tony Millard-trained Super Jockey as Hong Kong-based winners of the Korea Sprint.

“Self Improvement has won already and has proven that he handles the track very well, so he is one of our main dangers. But Beauty Waves has the class and if he is in good form and enjoys the track and travels well, I think he can win,” said Chau, who rode a winner for Team Hong Kong in last month’s Shergar Cup at Ascot.

While Beauty Waves and Self Improvement, who will be ridden by Dylan Mo from gate nine, are Group winners in their own right, Danny Shum-trained Gorgeous Win will chase a breakthrough triumph under Richard Kingscote from the outside alley of 16.

While largely ineffectual on turf last season, Gorgeous Win produced a first and a second from two starts on the Sha Tin dirt, and Shum has decided now is the right time to travel the gelding.

Also on the road this weekend are Yoshito Yahagi-trained American Stage and Hideaki Fujiwara’s Dragon Welds from Japan, while 11 local gallopers will line up in Korea’s premier sprint.

The G3 Korea Sprint (1200m, sand) is carded as S3-1 and will be run at 3.20pm (Hong Kong time) on Sunday, 6 September.