There was the usual pastiche of weirdness late Thursday night when the HKJC presented something named Dubai Thursday, a simulcast of six races from Meydan hosted by very possibly the most powerful and feared racing personality in the world.
It was another of the powerful Sheikh Mo’s frequent garden parties. Those gatherings that bring together the fawning, the yawning and the totally irrelevant. What’s in it for these sycophants? Bragging rights. We know, we know. They don’t.
It was hard to tell if anyone showed up. It certainly didn’t look to be overflowing with the bold and the beautiful. Or even the most flatulent and irrelevant from the racing world.
Other than the six races being captured for posterity by what might have been a circus of somersaulting cameramen, it really was a showcase for those familiar Godolphin blue silks which were all over the place.
As these garden parties are like that Leslie Gore song where she stamps her feet and insists how it’s her party and she’ll cry if she wants to, die if she wants to etc, the Godolphin runner Spotify kept its race despite veering sharply onto another Godolphin runner.
As we have come to expect over the years, a runner trained by Saeed bin Suroor won the last- and at 40s- while the far more fancied of the Godolphin runners- favourite Symobilazion and trained by the current Master Of Meydan Charlie Appleby- didn’t run a place.
It was kinda goofy stuff and really nothing to get excited about. Appleby’s Mythical Magic seems a decent type with the run of another of the trainer’s runners- Wooton- being a horse to follow- in Meydan- after running into various traffic jams. But by then, it was around midnight and we just walked around doing stretching exercises until it was race 6 and Saeed bin Suroor time and when Major Partnership won the last.
$3,600 for the treble with two short priced favourites saluting in races 4 and 5 was a very good collect.
On Saturday at Caulfield, many big players we know had their huge multi bets crash and burn when $1.40 hot pot Zusain, ridden by the grossly overrated Craig “Motormouth” Williams, managed to get beaten and out-ridden by the Johnny Allen ridden Terbium, a very good galloper formerly with you know who, and now with Philip Stokes. The number of runners in the race? Five. To be fair to Mr Craggles, Zusain might not be the world beater some thought it was.
Terbium defeats Zousain! Four from four. Can you believe it? pic.twitter.com/jsDX2cJpJL — 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) February 23, 2019
Though Nature Strip was another short priced flop, there was plenty to like about the wins of Allize and Avilius for the team of James Cumming and Hugh Bowman.
The googles are flying and so is Alizee 🐎💨💨💨💨💨 Gr1 Futurity Stakes winner with @HugeBowman 👌 pic.twitter.com/yrzpJQR6WQ — Vince Caligiuri (@Vinnycenzo_71) February 23, 2019
The former benefitted from a very good ride and took out the Futurity Stakes. The Blue Diamond Stakes was won by the excellent Lyre for the often overlooked and very good Luke Currie and Anthony Cummings.
LYRE wins the Blue Diamond Stakes. Top notch training performance from Anthony Freedman. pic.twitter.com/6LxJ5lmgSc — 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) February 23, 2019
You-know-who being banished into the wilderness for four years followed by another roaring silence has made the trainer merry-go-round regarding where the carving up of his stable, has been extremely hard to follow which often makes having a bet these days not worth bothering about. It’s pretty close to betting blind.
Meanwhile, at Rosehill, The Autumn Sun showed everyone just what a very good colt he is. The ride by Kerrin McEvoy was what we have come to expect- a ride of Group 1 quality.
The Autumn sun is BACK! 7 starts for 6 wins. 3 x Group 1 wins. Onto the Doncaster Mile? pic.twitter.com/wYq0QIgzM0 — 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) February 23, 2019
Still at Rosehill, the quaddie paid over AUS$213,000, no doubt helped by the win of White Moss ridden by Kathy O’Hara, which went off at over 50 to 1- and tipped with great confidence by Sky paddock expert Lizzie Jelfs.
The Autumn sun is BACK! 7 starts for 6 wins. 3 x Group 1 wins. Onto the Doncaster Mile? pic.twitter.com/wYq0QIgzM0 — 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) February 23, 2019
Ms O’Hara almost pulled off a huge double when having to settle for second in the earlier race on Spiritual Pursuit which was punted down late so heavily in the race that the tremors were felt in Hong Kong. Funny that…
Meanwhile, after the rehearsal yesterday at a cold and rain sodden Conghua before the main event, horse racing is at Sha Tin today- most likely a grey and rainy Sha Tin. Highlights? Probably seeing that very good young rider Regan Bayliss make his Hong Kong debut.
Other than that, it’s an average race meeting with two dirt races, one of which brings the curtain down on the meeting and which should be taken out by Glorious Artist and add to the tally of Zac Purton and Frankie Lor this season.
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