HONG KONG RACING FINDS A NEW PINUP BOY

His ride-patient, lethal- and the strength in the finish to over-power no less than Douglas Whyte and the youthful exuberance of celebrating his win is the type of stuff which makes “news” with young racing fans- and future young horse owners.

When young- it’s that word again- Mickael Barzalona won on David Ferraris’ St Didar on an ordinary looking all-weather race- to hardcore punters- it suddenly made the jockey the talk of this new generation of race-goer.

Did these new racing fans give a damn if the race was run on an all-weather track or if the distance might have seemed “too long” for the horse?

Of course not.

They only cared about who won the race and the tussle at the end for supremacy.

And then they joined in Barzalona’s celebrations of riding his first winner in Hong Kong at his first day of riding in the city.

Barzalona is young- 20 years-old- he is baby-faced and suddenly we heard squeals behind us- and not from guys who had won on the horse.

The squeals were from young Chinese girls- and their Mothers- who thought Barzalona to be “cute.”

They were already tweeting their friends about the jockey and planning fan pages on Facebook.

This is more of what racing needs- young riders like Barzalona- and then promoting the hell outta them.

Get them interviewed on television- and not on racing shows aired when Hong Kong is asleep- and away from those racing pages read by the same old boring usual suspects.