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SPECIAL REPORT: HONG KONG RACING
Father and Son, Riding High
By RYAN GOLDBERG
DECEMBER 11, 2015
When Glyn Schofield rode at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong a decade ago, his son Chad was too young to get into the track, so he and other boys climbed trees behind the grandstand to watch the action. Those whose fathers were jockeys made a racket whenever they buzzed past.
“It was always nice to come past your family, screaming and shouting,” recalled Glyn Schofield, 48, who bagged more than 150 victories in Hong Kong from 2002 to 2006.
But on Sunday at Sha Tin, the positions will be flipped. The father, who nows rides in Australia, will be watching — from a seat in the stands — as his son, now 21 and a rising star in racing, buzzes past.
After quick-fire triumphs in Australia, including the famous Cox Plate in 2013, Chad received an invitation from the Hong Kong Jockey Club to join its big-money circuit. He is now seventh in the local standings with 11 victories.
Sunday is the showpiece day of racing there, with four multimillion-dollar invitational races, including the prestigious Hong Kong Cup. And even though he secured mounts in six races on the night, Chad Schofield won’t be riding in the international races.
The younger Schofield didn’t start riding until he was almost 16. He thinks his father initially kept him away from horses because he feared that a bad experience might dissuade him. So his early years were spent riding the arm of the sofa at home, with his father’s crop and helmet, mimicking what he saw on television.
“I don’t think he quite embraced the idea of me being a jockey,” Chad said of his father. “But he wanted the decision to be all mine.”
Family history suggested what that decision might be. His mother, Tiffany, is from a family of celebrated jockeys in South Africa. Her grandfather, Charlie Barends, won several championships and her father, Aubrey Roberts, won the Durban July, South Africa’s biggest race, before becoming a trainer. Roberts hired Glyn Schofield, who was born in England, as an apprentice after he had graduated from Durban’s riding academy. Roberts soon also had a son-in-law.
After his Glyn Schofield’s success in Hong Kong, the family moved to Australia at the end of 2007.
As soon as Chad started riding and was allowed to join a stable, he did, though still a small, quiet teenager. His father brought him to the trainer David Payne, a former jockey for whom Glyn had ridden Group 1 winners in South Africa.
After a week of easing him in, Payne said of the younger Schofield, “He looks like a natural to me.”
His father, then recuperating from a broken leg, drove him to Payne’s barn at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney every morning. He watched him learn, offering tips and encouragement, and within six months Chad was race-riding.
Once Glyn returned to the saddle, he refused mounts on days when Chad rode. Chad had been riding competitively for only a few months when he broke his arm in a fall. His father was there, watching.
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