Despite a deliberately slow start to his tenure, trainer Jamie Richards is rapidly emerging as a “star of the future” in Hong Kong, according to Asian Racing Report Editor Michael Cox.

Speaking on this week’s episode of Asian Racing Review alongside Andrew Le Jeune, Cox nominated the New Zealander when asked to make a prediction on the ‘next big thing’ in the highly-competitive jurisdiction’s trainers’ stand.

“The obvious answer from early in the season was local trainer Pierre Ng,” said Cox.

“But who has snuck up and has built an incredible first season is Jamie Richards… Jamie didn’t have a runner until the eighth meeting, he took the patient approach.

“I thought he got it wrong by pressing ‘reset’ on all of his transfer horses; he took the shoes off and said ‘no we’re going to start again with these horses, we’re going to give them a break’… To Jamie’s credit, it looked shaky to start with, but he is really flying now.

“Given where he’s come from and how much patience he showed to get there, he’s really making the most of it.”

Ahead of Wednesday night’s all weather meeting at Sha Tin, the 33-year-old Richards has achieved 30 wins from just 253 starters, with his 12 per cent winning strike rate matched only by leading trainer John Size (59 wins from 495 starters) and third-placed Ricky Yiu (47 from 399), and bettered by none.

Watch the segment on Jamie Richards: 

Also in this week’s episode: 

Golden Sixty to stay at home, miss Yasuda Kinen (0:00); The Sha Tin AWT: ‘all weather’ in name only? (4:51); The ‘next big thing’ in the Hong Kong trainers ranks (9:31); Mark Newnham set to saddle-up final Australian runners (15:01); Singapore latest: Coin Toss brilliant winner of G2 3YO Classic (16:59); ‘Sodashi week’ at asianracingreport.com: enter our social media giveaway (18:42).

Watch this week’s episode: 

The Sha Tin Report: Wednesday May 10