SOMETHING FOR (NEARLY) EVERYONE AT HAPPY VALLEY’S OKTOBERFEST MEETING!
- The FastTracker
- Sep 29, 2011
- 3 min read
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tndlUh0ysk
It was only a matter of time and Tim Clark rode his first winner in Hong Kong in the first race on a rather rainy Happy Wednesday night.
We’re sure that the gifted young rider from Sydney didn’t give a damn that this was a lowly Class 5 race or that the Typhoon Signal Number 3 was up.
Clark was probably singing in the rain to the Oompah band flown in from Munich for the Beer Garden’s Oktoberfest gathering as he gave a superb display to get 33 to 1 shot – and tipped by Paddock Parade expert Jenny Chapman – Easy Gold- home for that other “new boy” to Hong Kong racing – trainer Richard Gibson.
What we liked about this ride was that Clark persevered with a very small opening which presented itself on the inside.
If he had switched his ride away from the horse next to him and he would have lost the race.
It was a very good piece of intuitive riding.
To keep the Aussie flag flying, Darren Beadman won the next, a jockey Clark told us earlier today, was someone he had always admired and is riding as good as ever.
Clark on Compact Yarn also played a role in pestering Douglas Whyte on the hot pot in the race – Redoute’s Star for trainer Tony Cruz – with some competitive riding.
Two races down and Whyte’s comeback from a two meeting suspension was looking as gloomy as the weather: He had been on two favourites and both had failed to run a place.
The favourites kept imploding and with neither of the top two in the market even running a place in the third.
Local trainer Peter B K Ng maintained his career “renaissance” by having his strangely named horse – Spicy Shrimp – winning the third under some hard riding from apprentice Ben T H So.
What we enjoyed most about this race was the Trackside team’s Darren Flindell having another of his very entertaining hissy fits, this time about the favourite for the race “sucking in punters” and how, “Well, it just cannot keep being ridden this way. It’s just not working.”
No, it’s not.
The horse was the first one beaten.
During the replay of the head-on, we swear we heard that usual Flindell sigh of disgust.
Guess his Six-Up bet came undone.
Thankfully, Vincent C Y Ho won on the favourite in Race 4 and with this being the start of Oktoberfest, the omen bet was to follow every horse from the stable of Hong Kong-based German trainer Andreas Schutz.
He came through for us when the 12 to 1 Sammy’s Falcon won the fifth with another great ride by Tye Angland aboard – his second for the season.
Again, the favourite in this race – Caga Spirit – got rolled and we doubt Hong Kong’s showbiz “Caga Boys” would have been very happy as, like last week when it ran and faded, it was backed for a stack.
But ol’ Schutzy would have been saying “Prost” a few times on the night and quite a few “Danke Shoens.”
The Racing Club Syndicate also had reason to celebrate Oktoberfest when their Young Turbo, trained by John Size and beautifully ridden by Mark Du Plessis took out Race 6.
The huge plunge on Regency Winner came off and which meant that all those who backed it along with the winning combination of Matthew Chadwick and Tony Cruz were also singing in the Oktoberfest rain which was by now absolutely pelting down.
Strange as it might sound, Douglas Whyte had only managed one placing from seven starts.
But all that was meant to change in the last race of the evening when he partnered King Mossman for trainer John Size.
It didn’t.
King Mossman got into a huge traffic jam and came stone motherless last.
Race caller Brett Davis was being very kind when he screamed out that “King Mossman was at the tail of the field.”
The “tail”, Brett?
King Mossman would not have even come sixth.
It was gone the moment it came around the corner an ran into a horse block.
Traffic jam or not, King Mossman was never ever going to win and it was a shocking night at the office for Douglas Whyte.
But champions don’t stay down for long.
As long as the weather eases up, watch him come back with a “bang” on Saturday and the National Day Meeting.
As for the last race, there was a truckload of money for the Derek Cruz-trained and Vincent C Y Ho-ridden Flying Colours – from 24 to 6s! – and it pissed in as hard as the rain.
And with that, the racing ended, we met a few frauleins in the Beer Garden and which meant the night wasn’t a complete blow-out.
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