Horse racing: Superstar trainer set to leave New Zealand

Trainer Jamie Richards prior to the Cambridge Stud Zabeel Classic 2000m. Photo / Photosport.co.nz

Superstar trainer Jamie Richards has confirmed when his remarkable New Zealand career with come to an end.

The premiership winner is heading to Hong Kong to take up one of the much sought-after training licences there and told the Weigh In television show on Monday he will be leaving on April 1.

"We have set that date now and the tickets are booked so there is no going back now," said Richards.

Richards will be accompanied by partner and star jockey Danielle Johnson, who has been out of the saddle with a broken leg suffered at Ellerslie on New Year's Day, so New Zealand will remarkably lose its two reigning premiership holders on the same day.

"Of course it will be sad to go and I couldn't be prouder of what we have achieved and the opportunity I have been given by David and Karyn at Te Akau," says Richards.

"But their operation will be in great hands with so many good staff and a champion trainer Mark Walker now back in the country and ready to take the reins back over again soon."

Walker is himself a multiple New Zealand premiership winner and as well as the leading trainer in Singapore and is in MIQ in Auckland so will be able to rejoin Te Akau next week, giving he and Richards a month together for the upcoming Karaka yearling sales and to transition the stable.

"As much as it will be hard to go I am really looking forward to the new challenges in Hong Kong and realise how lucky I am to have a shot at this," says Richards.

"So it is very exciting." Johnson will see doctors this week to find out when she can get her cast off but has made no announcement on whether she will seek to ride in Hong Kong.

Richards says he was not disappointed by Entriviere's brave second to Levante in the BCD group one sprint at Te Rapa on Saturday and while there are no firm plans for the speed freak mare she could head to the paddock and prepare for a Brisbane winter campaign.

Stable star Probabeel has come through her defence of the Bellmaine Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday in great shape and will head to the group one Futurity on the same track on February 26, another race she won last season.

She then has her richest target of the season in the A$5million All Star Mile at Flemington next month.

Richards says Saturday's high-class juvenile winner Maven Balle is likely to be tried on the two-week back up for the Matamata Breeders Stakes on her home track on Saturday week.

But he did have a warning for futures punters on next month's New Zealand Oaks, for which he has favourite The Perfect Pink.

"She heads to the Avondale Guineas this Saturday and then all going well the Derby at Ellerslie on March 5.

"If she goes to both those races it is our intention, at this stage, to miss the Oaks at Trentham in preference for the ATC Oaks in Sydney a few weeks later."