Ng, Sonny

Sonny Ng

Article by Chris Pitt

(left) Sonny with Flaxseed.

Long before the arrival of Japan’s Yutaka Take on the international scene; way back when the land for Hong Kong’s Sha Tin racecourse had not yet been reclaimed from the sea, the Daily Mail ‘Sportsmail Special’ writer Harry Carpenter wrote on Tuesday, May 15, 1962:

“The rider of Flaxseed in the last race at Wolverhampton tonight, is, I assure you, Kee Fatt Ng. None other.

“In Malaya, where he comes from, they pronounce the last

name ‘Ung’ – a noise rather like swallowing bitter medicine. At trainer Jack Spencer’s thatched stables in Weyhill, Hampshire, he is known as plain En Gee, or Sonny. “Pronounced how you like – 19-year-old Ng makes history, the first Malayan jockey to ride in Britain.”

Malaya had gained independence in 1957. The Federation of Malaysia – set up in 1963, when Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak agreed to unite – had not yet been created when Sonny Ng Kee Fatt, in company with fellow apprentices Michael Lam, 25, and Said Bin Ahmad Jamil, 19, arrived at Weyhill in February 1962, courtesy of the Malayan Racing Association.

Born in Ipoh, Malaya, Sonny Ng had left school at 14 and gone straight into J. E. Martin’s stables in Singapore. In three years the 5ft 3ins, 7st 4lb apprentice had ridden nine winners. Spencer met him while he was amassing 200-odd rides in and around Singapore. The only time Sonny had seen British jockeys in action was when Joe Mercer, Eddie Larkin, Davy Jones and Bill Elliott journeyed out to ride in Singapore during the British winter. While in Britain Sonny wrote a weekly letter home to his mother, who worked as a hair stylist in Singapore.

Liverpool-born Jack Spencer had not long returned from Singapore after nearly 40 years training there. He had been captured by the Germans in the First World War, and by the Japanese in the second. When he came out of Singapore’s notorious Changi jail he was a 90lb skeleton. Now he was fast turning the Weyhill, near Andover, stables, from which Frank Hartigan sent out Shaun Goilin to win the 1930 Grand National, into an outpost of Malayan racing.

All 26 horses he trained there belonged to one man, a multi-millionaire Asian theatre and film impresario named Runme Shaw. He had recently opened a $20,000,000 film studio in Hong Kong and was believed to be one of the world’s wealthiest men. Shaw owned nearly 100 racehorses in Europe, Asia and Australia. Spencer, who trained for him in Singapore, had been Malaya’s top trainer three times in the past ten years.

Assistant trainer Bert Boddy was responsible for adapting the Far Eastern apprentices to the English style of riding. All three were accustomed to a short rein, Australian style, and to starting from stalls – their introduction in Britain still more than three years away – rather than a barrier tape. Boddy reported: “They are three of the most willing lads I’ve ever had. I could do with a few more like them.”

Alas, Flaxseed, a good looking four-year-old grey filly, trailed in last in that Wolverhampton debut, to nobody’s great surprise. (left)Spencer acknowledged that she wasn’t as fast as she looked. Nor did Sonny’s second ride, Bright Biddy at Lewes a fortnight later, fare any better, finishing last of ten.

Flaxseed and Bright Biddy were two of the lesser lights in Runme Shaw’s string. With Shaw being heavily involved with stage and screen, the names of his horses usually reflected his line of business. The likes of Picture Goer, Feature Film, Matinee and Producer were among those to carry his yellow and blue silks.

It was another of these, Actress, who provided Sonny Ng with his sole British success when winning a four-runner