SAMANTHA LAM - HKJC



Hong Kong Jockey Club Equestrian Team

Biographies

SAMANTHA LAM

Born of Hong Kong parents in Vancouver, BC, Canada on 29 June, 1978, Samantha Lam started riding at the age of seven and got her first pony, the chestnut mare Weecha, a year later. Her first Grand Prix horse, Manadi, was originally bought for her father Solomon to jump in amateur classes, but Samantha took over the ride.

After a couple of training sessions with celebrated American trainer George Morris, Samantha started training more intensively with Morris, making her Grand Prix debut at the age of 14. In 1996 she finished third in the prestigious US$100,000 Budweiser Invitational in Tampa, Florida. Later that year she went on to claim sixth overall in the selection trials for the Canadian Olympic team and was named as first reserve for the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.

In April 1997 Samantha became the youngest-ever female rider to compete in the World Cup Final in Gothenburg, Sweden and the following year she moved to Germany to focus on her riding career. During an eight-year stint in Germany she earned the respect of her colleagues on the international jumping circuit and was awarded the German Golden Riding Medal, the German Equestrian Federation's highest honour for professional riders.

During her time on the Florida circuit, prior to her move to Germany, Samantha had met up with Nelson Pessoa, Brazil's best-known coach and a five-time Olympian himself. In March 2006, Samantha relocated to Pessoa's stables in Belgium to work and train with the maestro, whose son Rodrigo is the reigning Olympic jumping champion and winner of three World Cup Finals in a row.

Samantha, who was born in the Year of the Horse, is one of a squad of riders to receive sponsorship from The Hong Kong Jockey Club and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust Fund. She qualified two horses for the Olympic Jumping events, Jockey Club Tresor, and the Lam family-owned Coco.

Samantha opted to ride the more experienced Jockey Club Tresor, but she was battling against an agonising back problem after aggravating an old injury. Despite constant pain, she completed two tough rounds of jumping and won applause from the spectators for her grit and determination. After gaining precious experience from her Olympic debut, Samantha went back to Belgium to continue training and competing in Europe. Her next goal is a high placing in the 2010 Asian Games.

PATRICK LAM

Born in Graz, Austria, on June 24, 1983, Patrick Lam liked conventional sports such as running, football and basketball. But then he tried horse riding when he was a teenager and he was hooked immediately.

The best part of riding, Lam says, is that the rider has to compete with an animal as a partner, which can mean that it’s difficult one day and easy the next. His horse, Urban, is a strong Belgian-bred stallion that likes to work.

Lam has won awards in young rider classes in Austria and has won national 1.30 and 1.40 metre classes. He has notched up some placings in national 1.50 metre classes and international 1.40 metre classes.

His current coach is Dietmar Gugler of Germany. Previously he trained at the Austrian stables of Anton Martin Bauer, a former Olympian, and was based at Stal Puck in the Netherlands for a year. He has also participated in clinics offered by other well-known trainers.

In between intensive equestrian coaching sessions, Lam has studied both business and law at the Business University of Graz and has taught intermediate riders. He still enjoys non-equestrian sports; he belongs to a golf club and a climbing club and is a certified diver.

Until The Hong Kong Jockey Club and Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust Fund stepped in with sponsorship, Lam's parents had been his only financial backers. “Horse riding is an expensive sport,” he says, and “if you don’t have good sponsors, you can’t go to good shows.”

The experience that Lam has gained through his training with Dietmar Gugler was put to good use at the Beijing 2008 Olympics when he produced a superb clear round in the opening class, the individual jumping qualifier, much to the delight of the Hong Kong supporters. It left Lam in equal first place, ahead of the reigning Olympic champion Rodrigo Pessoa, world champion Jos Lansink and other sporting legends such as Germany’s Ludger Beerbaum. A second solid performance helped Lam to make the cut for the top-50, the only rider from Hong Kong or China to have made it through to the third qualifier. Lam is now viewed as one of the rising stars in equestrian sport in Hong Kong. His next goal is to thrive in the 2010 Asian Games.

KENNETH CHENG

Born in Hong Kong on 7 April 1988, Kenneth Cheng started riding at an early age. "I started at about four or five because both my parents rode, but I didn't really enjoy it then", Cheng says. "It was only when I got to about 15 and was starting to get results in competitions that I started to enjoy it."

Cheng first learned to ride at Lo Wu Saddle Club in Sheung Shui before switching to The Hong Kong Jockey Club owned Beas River Country Club. He was still riding only once a week, but by the time he was 14, he was riding almost every day. It was a natural progression to start training in Europe every summer and, at the age of 17, he started preparing for the Asian Games.

Then training with the 2002 world champion, Dermott Lennon of Ireland, Cheng competed in the Asian Classic League Finals at the World Cup Finals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in April 2006, winning the final class of the Asian Classic League in the build-up to the Asian Games later that year.

In 1986, Kenneth's father, K M Cheng had represented Hong Kong in the Asian Games in Seoul, Korea, and was a member of the team that finished fourth, frustratingly just outside the medals. Two decades later, K M's 18-year-old son Kenneth also flew the flag for Hong Kong at the Asian Games, this time in Doha, Qatar. Kenneth, who previewed his 2008 Olympic torchbearer role when he was selected as a torchbearer for the 2006 Asian Games, claimed a top 20 finish in Doha.

After a spell training in Switzerland with a colleague of former World Cup champion Marcus Fuchs, Cheng switched to Belgium-based Dutchman Henk Nooren. Two World Cup qualifier wins at Beas River with the retired racehorse Kin Fortune in 2007 boosted Cheng's profile and it was no surprise when he was among a group of four riders to receive sponsorship from The Hong Kong Jockey Club and Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust Fund in November last year.

Cheng, who was home in Hong Kong briefly in May to fulfil his duties as a torchbearer in the Olympic Torch Relay, now has two horses qualified for the Olympic equestrian events, Jockey Club Can Do, from former world number one Ludger Beerbaum, and Felton Lee, which is owned by a private Hong Kong sponsor.

It was the German-bred gelding Felton Lee that Cheng steered to victory on the opening day of the Danish Nations Cup show in Copenhagen on 15 May 2008, winning the Grand Prix qualifier by almost half a second from the home side's Soren Pedersen.

At the age of just 20, Kenneth was the youngest of the three Hong Kong equestrian team members at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Cheng and Jockey Club Can Do hit just one fence in their first outing in the Olympic arena at Sha Tin and, two days later, completed the first round of the team qualifier.  After the Games, Cheng returned to his studies at university in Belgium, but he is continuing with his training, aiming to fly the flag for Hong Kong at the 2010 Asian Games. 

GAELLE TONG

Gaelle Tong is the latest rider to join the elite equestrian team sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club. The Hong Kong born 17-year-old says she enjoys yoga, running and skiing, but horses are her real love.

The second daughter of a Chinese father and French mother, Gaelle first sat on a pony in France when she was just two and was jumping fences, specially designed for Shetland ponies, a year later.

Along with her elder sister Magali, Gaelle started riding lessons at the Union Riding school at the age of six, then at Lo Wu Saddle Club where she got her first pony livery before joining the The Hong Kong Jockey Club's Beas River Country Club in Sheung Shui where she picked her first ex-race horse livery and started to compete seriously. From there she went on to claim many awards at young rider level. Her most memorable sporting achievement was victory in the South-East Asian Young Riders World Cup League in Kuala Lumpur in 2004, (the same year that she scored a hat-trick of wins at the Malaysian Open in Rawang) – and she was only 13 at the time!

Already dubbed "Hong Kong's young star" by the equestrian media, Gaelle Tong was a member of the Hong Kong team that competed at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. She was also one of the riders assessed for Club funding in 2007 in the build-up to the Olympics, but the independent assessment panel felt that although she was undoubtedly a star in the making, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was just a year too early for her.

Currently studying at Hartpury College in Britain, Gaelle is taking a one-year National Sport Award prior to doing a three-year Diploma in Sport Business Management. She is part of Hartpury's Equestrian Academy and is on a full scholarship as a member of the College's Jumping Elite Squad.

Gaelle was originally trained by Stuart Mitchell, former Equestrian Manager at Beas River Country Club, venue for this summer's Olympic cross-country competition. She now works with Corinne Bracken in England and in Germany with Dietmar Gugler, coach to Hong Kong's Olympic superstar, Patrick Lam.

Two of Gaelle's top horses – Open Treasure and Smacko – are ex-Hong Kong racehorses, so it's particularly appropriate that she is the latest member to join The Hong Kong Jockey Club sponsored equestrian team.

"To be one of the Club-sponsored riders is a dream come true for me", says the teenager who names Germany's double World Cup champion Marcus Ehning as her idol.

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