WERE YOU “TRUMPED” AT SHATIN?

In Sydney and Melbourne today, those who followed the favourites were totally wiped out- especially when the two rank outsiders took out the last races. So, we went into today’s meeting at Shatin full of some trepidation today.

When Brett Prebble on the hot pot in Race1 and Douglas Whyte on he hot pot in Race3, both flopped, we were swamped with a feeling of Oz-Comes-To-Hong Kong. Thankfully, we did something we have not done this season when we bet on Greg Cheyne to win Race 4 on the Andreas Schutz-trained Suisse D’Or.

Why did we do such an odd thing?

Fast Track’s racing Guru tipped it his column as one of his two value horses and it obliged at 17 to 1.

Wrote our Guru: “If looking for odds, perhaps look at quinellas and tierces. I am hoping that Greg Cheyne who, I hear won’t be staying in Hong Kong for much longer, comes through on Suisse D’Or in race 4- in a placing- and that Mark Du Plessis does the same in the last with St Didar.”

To be frank, we did think, the very underrated Tye Angland on the favourite-Golden Treasure was a good thing beaten.

It was checked, it lost a couple of lengths and lost by a nostril hair.

Still it gave the German trainer the race quinella.

It also gave the hard-working South African jockey- Cheyne- who rode the horse like a jockey possessed and needing his riding license extended- his first winner of the season.

Rumours are a-buzz, however, that with three new jockeys coming soon to Hong Kong- amongst the three, French whizz kids Maxime Guyon and Mikel Barzalona, Cheyne will not be in Hong Kong for much longer.

With the Schutz quinella fresh in minds, many stayed clear of the race favourite Chancellor, and went for the German’s trainer’s somewhat lucky last start winner in the pretty ordinary Rock ‘N Typhoon.

Chancellor, known by quite a few in Sydney, is a small horse and was carrying top weight.

Despite having the great Gerard Mosse aboard, it was one we ignored as it had only won a Maiden in Wyong and run a placing in Canterbury.

Surely, people are wrong when they say the owners paid AUS$400k for this scraggly thing?

We also ignored Rock’N Typhoon as we just do not think the horse is any good and went for the Caspar Fownes-trained Mighty K while the powerful voice of Darren Flindell’s Trackside boomed out about some horse being “trumped for the race”.

It’s become “The Dazzler’s” L’Expression De Jour and we have no idea what this “trumped for the race” even means.

“Prepared” for the race? “Entered” for the race?

A tribute to Donald Trump?

Where the hell did this “TRUMPED” for the race come from and why is it so darn overused?

As for the race itself, it was, indeed “trumped” when Dougie Whyte’s Dispatcher which was being backed down along with Mighty K and Shiny Day, was withdrawn at the barriers.

Most of the horses came out of the barriers and we saw some more huge bets being landed on Mighty K and Shiny Day as we endured one of those extended delays.

It did give us the time however to follow the money and land the quinella.

When the race was finally run, the two horses thumped in the betting came first and second- Howard Cheng on Shiny Day and Brett Prebble on Mighty K. The small horse with the big weight didn’t even place and Rock’N Typhoon almost came last.

Glorious Days which started at 1.4 saw the combination of John Size and Dougie Whyte win the next with this very exciting New Zealand 4-year-old which, after showing some real greenness, eventually cuddled the horse and made it romp home with a leg in the air and a song in its heart.

It was never ever going to lose and here is one of Hong Kong’s bona fide “rising stars.”

Hong Kong’s popular “Sam The Tailor” for the Stars- Manu Melwani- was finally rewarded for perseverance when his Green Zone won Race 8. We reckon the last time “Sam” led in a winner was when men wore jackets with sleeves rolled up over their elbows.

Known as Sparkle when it raced in Sydney, the now-Caspar Fownes-trained galloper took well to blinkers being added for the first time and its first run on the all-weather track.

Well, done, Sam!

With Olivier Delouze on its back, it won easily and that win many of us were waiting for finally happened- though we always expected that it would win with Tye Angland aboard and had ridden the horse when in Oz.

More trainers and horses were “trumped” in the next race according to Darren Flindell and where the red hot favourite from the John Size yard and ridden by Douglas Whyte.

Drawn the wrong side of the track in a 1000 metres race in Shatin and as we had written before race day, the favourite was “trumped” and capitulated.

It finished an average fifth and we have doubts about this horse and thought it to be well under the odds.

The race was won by the Peter Ho-trained Arrived Ahead and which we can only assume was “trumped for the race”.

Tim Clark gave its backers a beauty of a ride on Hear The Roar and got it home in the penultimate event.

He tracked the leading bunch and made a split second decision to keep it wide and not take an inside run- and it paid off.

“Clarky” has truly arrived in Hong Kong and owners and trainers who are not using the jockey should.

Flindell mentioned how David Ferraris had “trumped” one of his horses.

By this time, he had used the word “trumped” SIXTEEN times!

Give is a break, mate!

It’s far worse than all that rambling a few seasons ago about how “Little fish taste sweet” and horses having “internal fortitude.”

King Of Reason took out the last and we believe that the Fast Track group of newbie racing fans tipped their third Six Up of what is still a youngish season.

Good for them and good for you if you followed them.

We did.

After all, that’s team work!