WHAT MAKES DOUGLAS WHYTE TICK, TOCK AND ROCK

(Source: Apple Daily)

When Douglas Whyte won the last race at Shatin yesterday on the Dennis-trained All You Wish, he gave a very determined yet subtle punch of authority in the air.

It said many things to those who know this very professional and purposely private athlete who knows everyone but who very few will ever know.

(Source: Apple Daily)

It’s the same sign we saw the meeting before when he won on the John Moore-trained Flagship Shine and a sign we have seen over the years as this once-unknown jockey who found himself in Hong Kong, stayed here and conquered the Jockey Premiership for twelve consecutive Guinness Book Of World Record-breaking years.

(Source: Racing Memories)

If only the bloke who owns the Rights in Greater China wasn’t such a greedy character who is well known for wanting favors for a mention in the GBOWR for which he owns the licensing, Douglas Whyte would be in the book- and given his rightful dues and place in history.

(Source: Apple Daily)

But Whyte doesn’t need to have his name in the book. It’s a matter of time before the book comes to him as no jockey anywhere in the world has accomplished what he has.

Sure, perhaps success in the big International races have eluded him, but in the international races that take place every race day in the competitive world of Hong Kong racing where jockeys and trainers are only as good as their last wins, Douglas Whyte comes through. Again and again.

Yes, he has gone though dry spells, but when talk gets Niki Lauda that he’s getting older, that he’s perhaps not as cavalier- or reckless?- in taking those needle-eye openings which he might once have done or that he has lost his touch, he comes roaring back to prove the naysayers wrong.

Rumours and the usual games played by the same group who smile in front of him yet wish to knock him off his pedestal through various devious means on and off the track makes him more determined. Not angry, just determined.

(Source: Pad Show Off)

This season has been tough with a great adversary in the brilliant Zac Purton and the inability to ride every horse in the John Size stable.

(Source: HKJC)

For the last few years, the Whyte-Size partnership worked as effectively as Starsky and Hutch, Crockett and Tubbs, Cagney and Lacy and Butch and Sundance.

(Source: Xuite)

Before the start of this season, Whyte admitted that having a restriction placed on the rides he can take for John Size would make things “difficult”, but it- again- made him more determined to get round this hiccup.

Any bridges he might have burnt with trainers Tony Cruz and Dennis Yip were healed and old wounds healed.

(Source: Sina)

Cruz who is the complete champion and with Trust and Loyalty being key to him and Yip have provided him with rides and he has repaid their faith in him by winning for them.

(Source: Sing Pao)

So, today, those of us racing fans in Hong Kong are so fortunate to watch this jockey from Durban in South Africa almost every race day- a jockey who made a point to meet and learn from Monty Roberts- the Horse Whisperer- about man and horse, watch the way he hardly ever whips a horse and, instead, relies on his partnership and mutual respect with these wonderful animals to make magic happen.

Being a born cynic, I am in awe of the man- as an athlete, husband, father and human being and I am proud as hell to call him a friend and be in his corner- win, lose or draw.

There is a scene in the Happy Wednesday video which ends with Douglas Whyte. Again, it says it all.

#ChampionjockeyinHongKong #DouglasWhyte #johnsize #tonycruz