Top Irish jockey Berry to ride in Singapore

SINGAPORE,  10 Dec 2009

Irish jockey Francis Berry, who has been granted a visiting jockey’s licence till March 20, will be making his Singapore debut tomorrow evening and has been booked on four rides, three of them for trainer Laurie Laxon.

Then Berry is off to Hong Kong to ride in the international races where he is booked on the Irish entry DUFF (Spinning World - Shining Prospect) in the HK$16m Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile on Sunday. 

Berry, 28, was apprenticed to his trainer-father, ten-time champion jump jockey Frank before he came out of his time in 1999. The young Irishman went gone on to claim more than 650 wins, including 38 wins over hurdles.

Since 2004, Berry has always finished in the top four in the Irish jockey’s table. This season, he rode 72 winners to finish third in the table behind John Murtagh.

With 56 black-type wins to his name, Berry is a well sought-after rider, although he is mainly retained by leading Irish trainer John Oxx. Some of his notable wins include the Group 2 Beresford Stakes (2007) with CURTAIN CALL and three Tattersalls Ireland Sale Stakes (2001, 2006 and 2007) which is one of Ireland’s most valuable Sales races.

His recent stakes wins included the Group 2 Park Stakes at Doncaster on DUFF and the Group 3 Renaissance Stakes with SNAEFELL at the Curragh which was one of four winners for Berry that day.

Berry has also ridden in England, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, India, Dubai and Macau. He goes to scale at 55kg.