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The Singapore Turf Club has granted a one-day visiting jockey’s licence to Australian jockey Mark Zahra to ride at the Lion City Cup meeting on Sunday, 14 August.

The 40-year-old Victorian jockey is booked by trainer Tim Fitzsimmons to ride Golden Monkey in the Group 1 Lion City Cup.

Zahra, who hails from Perth, was first apprenticed to trainer Dean White and made his riding debut in Western Australia in 1998. He has since chalked up more than 1,200 winners in 24 years of riding.

Currently licensed by Racing Victoria, Zahra has won 23 Group 1 winners to-date, with the latest one aboard Jungle Magnate in the South Australian Derby just two months ago. Other notable Group 1 achievements of his included the Blue Diamond Stakes atop Daumier this year, the Caulfield Cup with Verry Elleegant in 2020 and the TJ Smith Stakes with Santa Ana Lane in 2019.

His first Group 1 victory, however, came aboard the John Meagher-trained Mayo's Music in the Raffles Cup in 2004 in Singapore, whom he also partnered to claim the Group 3 Chairman's Trophy a year later.

Zahra also flew in for two one-day visits, first in 2018 where he helped Team Australia claim the Premier Gateway International Jockeys Challenge at Kranji, and in 2019. Previously, he rode 23 winners at Kranji from 2004 to 2006.

He currently sits in 18th position on 16 winners on the Victorian Metropolitan jockeys' premiership this season. Besides Australia and Singapore, he has also ridden in Hong Kong, India, Japan, Macau, Mauritius, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Zahra goes to scale at 56kgs.