THE GURU’S ROUNDUP OF SUNDAY AT SHATIN
- The FastTracker
- Nov 19, 2012
- 3 min read
It’s not often that trainer John Moore loses his D-Cup on a big Cup Day, but despite the army of entries and all the pre-race hype, he will have to wait to fight another day as the team of Dougie Whyte and John Size came storming through with a four-timer.
This included taking out the Jockey Club Mile with Glorious Days.
Blinkered for the first time, Glorious Days made Ambitious Dragon look flat and nothing like the horse that won first up.
Perhaps the horse only races well fresh and has a limited supply of fire to breathe out? Perhaps this is really now become Puff The Magic Dragon?
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. But what a glorious bloody day at the office to prove that Size matters and Whyte Lightning can strike four times.
Right here, let’s also not forget the amazing training feats of my old mates (Take me to the) Casibah Fownes and Tony “Puta Man”‘Cruz.
If the former only had his Lucky Nine 85 percent fit today, well, that was one helluva performance by a horse that doesn’t know how to give up.
Lucky Nine is all heart and despite me being on the second place getter Time After Time with Cindi Lauper riding Dougie Whyte, I had to shake my moneymaker towards Cas and salute him with my brinjal for taking out the Jockey Club Sprint.
And then there was the comeback win of California Memory and a brilliant ride by Matty Chadwick. The young jockey’s off-season stint in the UK has done him a world of good and turned him into a jockey who doesn’t only ride horses on the pace and have some weird racing version of a premature ejaculation.
In the words of the great Otis Redding, he’s learnt to tease her and please her and try a little tenderness. Now, if only he can stop sounding eerily like his mentor.
It’s always good to come from behind and which is how he rode California Memory to take out the Longines Jockey Club Cup and mow down three Moore horses in the process including the red hot favorite Packing Whiz which came fourth over the 2000 metre race and was more like Packing Wheeze.
But the day belonged to The Dream Team of John Size and Dougie Whyte. Sizey has gone about his work with a Business As Usual sign but the expectations by rabid local punters for Hong Kong’s champion jockey for twelve consecutive seasons to constantly deliver on even no hopers are so high, they’re off the fucking planet.
And for the past few weeks, Dougie Whyte has come in for his fair share of sprays and which he returned with four masterful rides and the real beauty being to get The Peak across from yet another horror barrier draw and win like a horse that is really going somewhere- and not just hitching a ride on the Peak tram.
The performance sure surprised me as I gave it a place chance at best and which shows how much I know.
Having said all this, today’s Cup races were the final dress rehearsals for International Day and though some horses will come on from today, especially California Memory and Glorious Days are gonna give Hong Kong something to cheer about.
And write off John Moore at your peril. When he had to withdraw Dominant earlier in the day, the lamb khorma didn’t look good and which is probably why his runners looked like brittle papadums. It was bad khorma, dude.
Even as I write, John Moore must be tearing out the few hairs he has, at least on his head, and going through each horse with a fine tooth comb while spitting bullets at Georgie and wondering what the hell went wrong today and how a day like this will not happen on International Race Day.
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