Frankie Lo continued whirlwind career progress by posting his 400th Hong Kong win at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (4 October), reaching the milestone in only his seventh season with Heroic Master in the Class 3 Nam Fung Handicap (1000m).
Licensed as a trainer in 2017, Lor struck with his first runner – Yourtheoneforme – and surged to a record debut season haul of 65 winners. Formerly 12-time Hong Kong handler John Size’s assistant trainer, Lor then advanced to his first title in 2021/22 with 90 wins for the season to extend a prodigious sequence.
Now entrenched in Hong Kong training’s elite, 57-year-old Lor took 3,227 runners to reach 400 wins with a career winning strike rate of 12.4% – a figure bettered only by the astonishing Size, whose 1,493 wins have come at 13.8%.
While Size remains the fastest to reach the 400-win landmark, taking 2,941 runners, Lor was quicker than Tony Cruz (3,649) and Ivan Allan (3,703).
Typically deflective of praise, Lor said: “It’s not easy. I need to say thank you for the stable team – at Conghua and also Sha Tin – they work really hard. Owners also, without their support, I don’t win 400 races,” he said.
“I will not count how many numbers but I always try to win for the owners. Of course, I still want to get on top again (and win another championship) – always try, always try.”
Third in last season’s title race to Size and Francis Lui with 65 victories, Lor is again in the championship hunt with seven wins so far for the campaign to trail Lui (11), Caspar Fownes (10), Danny Shum (eight) and Pierre Ng (seven).