The Singapore Turf Club has granted three new licences to South African jockey Calvin Habib, Japanese jockey Shogo Nakano and Australian jockey Daniel Moor (pictured on left).
Habib is licensed to ride in Singapore for one year from 1 January to 31 December 2023 and he would commence riding after his medical clearance. Nakano is given a nine-month licence for the period from 1 April to 31 December 2023, while Moor will return for a three-month stint from 1 April to 1 July 2023.
Moor made three flying visits to Kranji last year where he booted home two winners from 12 rides, but Habib and Nakano will be making their first race appearances in Singapore.
Calvin Habib
Jockey Calvin Habib, 25, hails from South Africa where he has ridden for nine years. He was rejected from the South African (SA) Jockey Academy twice as they assessed his frame to be too big for a jockey, but the determined young man enrolled in the work riders’ training programme at the Thoroughbred Racing Development Centre and rode nine winners from just over 50 rides under the tutelage of trainer James Maree.
He was accepted into the SA Jockey Academy in 2015 on his third try, with South African multiple champion trainer Sean Tarry one of those who recommended and supported his application. Habib has since gone on to take out four Grade 1 wins, four Grade 2 wins and two Grade 3 wins in more than 330 winners to-date. All his four grade 1 wins were for Tarry, including the Allan Robertson Championship with Under Your Spell (2021) and Sweet Pepper (2022), the Gold Horse Medallion with Thunderstruck (2022) and the Summer Cup with Flying Carpet (2021).
Crowned the Zimbabwe champion jockey in the 2018/2019 season and Zimbabwe champion apprentice jockey in the 2016/2017 season, Habib has also ridden with success in Bahrain as an apprentice jockey during a three-month stint in 2017 where he bagged seven winners. He also represented South Africa in the Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Apprentice World Championship in France during the same year.
Licensed by the National Horseracing Authority of South Africa, Habib is currently ranked 6th on the South African jockeys’ premiership at 71 wins.
Habib goes to scale at 53kgs.
Shogo Nakano
Jockey Shogo Nakano, 31, is a Japanese rider who began riding in 2009 and won the award for the best apprentice jockey in the National Association of Racing (NAR) Tokyo area two years later. He also competed in the World All-Stars Jockeys series at Sapporo, Hokkaido in 2017.
In his 14 years of riding, Nakano has ridden in excess of 600 winners, including three Group 1 wins in Macau where he partnered Star Of Yiu Cheung to claim back-to-back wins in the Chairman’s Challenge Cup in 2021 and 2022, as well as the Macau Gold Cup in 2021.
Licensed by the Macau Jockey Club since 2019, Nakano currently sits in 3rd on 16 winners on the Macau jockeys’ premiership.
He goes to scale at 53kgs.
Daniel Moor
The 38-year-old Daniel Moor has been a regular short-term visitor to Singapore since September 2017, and he was based here from May 2018 to April 2020 where he bagged 47 winners. All-up, he has clocked in 49 winners at Kranji.
Born in Warrnambool, Victoria and a former leading Victorian apprentice jockey, Moor notched his 1000th career win aboard Toscano Rising at Benalla, Victoria on 5 January this year.
Moor now boasts 1,010 winners in 20 years of riding, including four Group 1 wins, namely the Australasian Oaks with Glint Of Hope (2022), the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes with Sierra Sue, the Manikato Stakes with Jonker and the Moir Stakes with Wild Ruler, all in 2021.
Licensed by Racing Victoria, he currently sits in 19th on nine winners on the Victorian Metropolitan Jockeys’ Premiership this season.
The well-travelled jockey has also ridden in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand and South Korea. Moor goes to scale at 52kgs.
Singapore Turf Club Press Release
