As long as you saw your horses thundering down the outside of the track, you might as well have gone back and looked at the next race.
With a very noticeable track bias which didn’t help horses on the inside, jockeys were taking their horses down the centre part of the track and winning.
This was no doubt why Namjong Hunter ridden by Keith M L Yeung was backed from 30s to 10s and won with a leg in the air and a smile on its face.
The horse was having only its second start for trainer Almond Lee and racking up win number two for the stable.
Though up a class, the money was spot on as with his biggest dangers being stuck on the inside of the track, Namjong Hunter just toyed with its opposition.
Wait: What opposition?
Early on Hong Kong saw a very good debutant in the David Hall-trained and Brett Prebble-ridden B Choice.
This is a horse to follow and with word being that Hall has a number of good new horses waiting to make their debut.
Prebble rode a race-to-race double by winning on Caspar Fownes-trained Bouncer in Race 5 in a very slowly run race and – what else? – the horse being four wide, coming down the outside and winning easily.
After six races, Prebble had won two races while the opening odds-on favourite for the Jockeys Challenge – Douglas Whyte – having only won on the hot pot in Race 1 – another horse to follow this season in Tony Millard’s Flying Unicorn.
Race 7 saw two masterful rides by two of the more experienced jockeys riding in Hong Kongand it was a race which newcomers to horse racing should watch and appreciate.
The race was won by Darren Beadman on Sky Mascot and with the great French jockey- Gerard Mosse – now back riding in Hong Kong – coming second on the first all-weather race of the day.
We watched Beadman – he had ridden in Melbourne the day before relax the highly-strung Sky Mascot all the way to behind the barriers and Mosse doing the same with Regency Luck.
As the gates opened, it was down to business and it really didn’t matter to us who won: Both jockeys gave 10/10 riding displays.
Who came third and fourth? Who cared?
We had seen two great and experienced riders separate the men from the boys.
Race 8 saw the hot favourite eased out of the race with something noticeably wrong with it.
The winner was top weight Athenium, a day-to-day racing proposition and winning its second race in a row for the Mark Du Plessis-Sean Woods combination.
Du Plessis is truly an underrated jockey.
Put him on a horse with a chance and he’ll deliver the goods.
As Athenium swept down the -yes – outside – we couldn’t help but notice the reaction on the face of jockey Eddie W M Lai on the second place-getter Jolly Fine.
The horse was backed for a stack and “Fast” Eddie probably thought he was home and hosed until he saw the Athenium A Train thundering down the outside.
The other betting plunge that went astray was the money put on the Terry C W Wong ride – Good Gains – in every single quinella.
Those who backed it also kissed their hard-earned goodbye. It was the Big Kiss Off.
We sat out the next race – another of those mind-boggling all-weather races and which was won by Darren Beadman on Military Move and given another brilliant ride.
Just Fantastic, the favourite which missed the start, was given a rather “erratic” ride by apprentice Alvin K C Ng and we have to wonder if this kid is suffering from the pressures of all the pre-hype he has had to live with.
Week after week, his horses start out being favourites and seldom come through.
In this same race, there was again more money for another Terry C W Wong ride in Hollywood Kiss.
Alas, those who backed it also kissed their hard-earned goodbye. It was the Big Kiss Off.
The highlight race of the day- The Chinese Recreation Club Challenge Cup – was won by the highly-rated Longwah Supreme and ridden by Olivier Delouze.
It was a mesmerizing win by the Michael C W Chang-trained galloper though we won’t be ignoring the huge run put in by the John Moore-trained and Darren Beadman ridden Captain Sweet to come in third.
These two horses are going to be mixing it up in the years to come.
Derek K C Leung bounced back after a short lean trot to win the last on Scarlett Camellia with the real disappointment of the race being the performance of the John Size and Douglas Whyte ridden Delish.
Again, we’ll be looking at the vet’s report as the run was just too bad to be real.
We didn’t even spot it anywhere in the race.
As tipped by our racing Guru, Darren Beadman won the Jockeys Challenge – he got 14 to 1 on that bet – and, overall, it was a day of ups and downs.
There were some good new horses coming to the fore and others which many thought to be “good things” coming horribly undone.
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