A Day & Nightmare At The Races

SHATIN: SEPTEMBER 18, 2001.

Sure, there were shocks galore to the system and many hot-pots bit the dust, but now is the time for brave hearts.

It’s also the time to keep that Black Book of horses that have needed the run and which one must follow when they are produced again.

It was a very hot, muggy day and when jockeys must have needed all their fitness to keep riding race after race.

They were not the only ones in a lather: You should have seen some of the horses…and some of those who didn’t win on the day.

What to look forward to next weekend: A HUGE Triple Trio Jackpot.

The day got off to a good start for jockey Zac Purton though punters suffered dizzy attacks when his winner turned out to be the 60 to 1 Happy Eagle.

The owners looked a bit shell-shocked and dizzy, too.

Trained by Almond Lee, the horse had shown nothing last season, had shown nothing at all trials – yet won like a good thing.

Shatin? This horse shat in.

Favourite Ambitious Owner who ran a cracker last week could not even run a place and neither did others in the market.

Then again, for a horse that barely weighs a thousand pounds and carrying top weight over a distance it has never won before and at only 3’s???? Not for us.

We’d love to have been a fly on the wall to hear what trainer Lee and Zac Purton were saying about the win on the way back to the weighing room.

Probably, “WTF????”

With an uncontested lead up front, the Howard Y T Cheng ridden and Peter B K Ng trained My Memory scrambled home in Race 2 to beat hot pot and the very inexperienced Silver Dragon with Brett Prebble aboard. The horse we’ll be following from this race will be Able Speed though another winner from My Memory will not surprise.

In Race 3 we were thinking of Balu Chainrai, the flamboyant and somewhat controversial Hong Kong-born and based Indian businessman who ended up inheriting the football club Portsmouth FC and which he managed to fob off to a Russian syndicate earlier this year, is someone seldom out of the news.

He’s currently making headlines as being one of the investors behind Freij Entertainment International, a Dubai-based company bidding to bring a giant transportable, 60-metre high, 42-cabin Ferris wheel to the Central waterfront area of Hong Kong and turn this into one of the city’s great new iconic sights. The winning bid for this project will be worth HK$ 95 million.

While this made headline news today, making much more low-key news was Chainrai’s interest in a horse making its debut in Race 3 at Shatin named Blue Caviar.

An extremely good looking 4-year-old brown gelding and raced by the Diogenes Syndicate, the horse was the favourite for the 1000 metre race when ridden by Douglas Whyte for trainer Danny Shum. And win it did. This is a VERY good horse and will develop into something special.

Balu Chainrai was a very happy man as was the cast of thousands there at the winner’s enclosure. We doubt that Douglas Whyte will be getting off this horse anytime soon. Also, we understand that a Red Caviar might soon make an appearance.

In Race 4, the “tactics” of Ride On The Fire – won’t that create ass-burn? – and the daft ride by Greg Cheyne on Global Win only set it up for the favourite Smart Choice ridden by Brett Doyle to swamp them and win with a leg in the air and a class in its hand – on the all-weather surface.

Keep following Ride On The Fire at Happy Valley and over 1000 metres. Despite all the hard work it did, it still held on for third.

Howard Y T Cheng was AGAIN left alone in a very slowly run Race 5 on Shiny Day and just ran them all into the ground at 17 to 1 despite a brilliant bit of riding by Douglas Whyte to get John Dory a nice trail into the race from barrier 10. the Tony Cruz-trained and Matthew Chadwick-ridden Chancellor, backed for a stack, flew to grab second ahead of John Dory. “Cruzy” looked as if he had eaten a dozen stale eggs.

Horses to follow from this race: Chancellor and, most definitely, Peppermint. The latter will just win the next time it steps out.

When Douglas Whyte surprisingly missed the start on favourite – the Andy T W Leung-trained Shifachi Tradition – this horse should be barred – well, we knew anything could happen. And it did when the much-maligned Carthage which Derek Cruz inherited into his stable and has been a real suck of a horse, won the 6th with a brilliant last to first ride by Derek K C Leung.

As many text us, “wtf are these results????” Wtf, indeed.

To rub salt into the wounds and add to the total wipe-out, another outsider in 100 to 1 shot Wealth Park came second – beaten a nose – and tipped by the HKJC’s Trackside team’s Darren Flindell. The on-air sighing and crying from Flindell and his on-air colleague Clint Hutchison – pictured below – was hard for us to take.

Along with them, there also went the Triple Trio without a winner for another week.

Race 7 – The Kwangtung Handicap Cup – was won very narrowly by Manfred K L Man’s 5 to 1 shot Supreme Win and hard-ridden by regular jockey Olivier Doleuze.

Keep following this horse whenever Ollie is on it.

The two favourites – the very well-weighted Fat Choy Ooh La La and National Treasure – came second and third, respectively.

With three horses in the nine-horse field, the result must have been a disappointment for trainer John Size.

Race 8 was won by the classy Pretty One and given a very good ride by Brett Prebble and with Tim Clark coming second on Happy Reunion to make it a Ricky P F Yiu Quinella.

The race favourite Shining Victory – another John Size/Douglas Whyte combination – was never in the race and with zilch to offer.

Derek K C Leung is proving just what an improved jockey he is and definitely the jockey of the moment by winning aboard another unwanted horse in the betting in Five Clubs in Race 8.

Just when The Prince looked to have the race in his keeping, there bound up Leung on another Manfred K L Man horse in Five Clubs and whoosh – that was it: Another body blow to punters.

As if to prove us right, Derek K C Leung took out the last and, to boot, the Jockey’s Challenge when he won for his old boss Paul O’Sullivan on Pizzaz – usually a regular ride for Zac Purton – at 16 to 1 and not exactly the most reliable of horses.

What a HUGE performance on the day by Leung – a treble – and with his only possible “blip” being the flop of Ambitious Owner, who in hindsight, was way under the odds and carrying top weight for a pretty small horse.

We still remember Douglas Whyte telling us some time ago how he thought Leung was the best of the local apprentices and which, at that time included Matthew Chadwick.

Whyte might not have had a good day at the office on Sunday, but as a judge of riding talent, he was on the mark.

Let’s now hope that all of Leung’s rides don’t start way under the odds and any unnecessary pressure is placed on the kid.

Apart from no one winning the Triple Trio, no one won the Six Up Bonus either.

So, roll on next week, there will be another Bonus next weekend – a Six Up Bonus with the regular Six Up paying over HK$150,000 FOR A $10 ticket.

Best line of the Day: Clint Hutchison from the HKJC Trackside team and talking about the combination of jockey Ben T H So and trainer Peter L Ho: “Yes, a horse from the SoHo combination.” Nice one, Clint.

Now, you and Darren, stop moaning about Wealth Park and what could have been.