Cryptic notes from the crib
......................................
HKJC TWITTER GETS ALL GOOEY ‘COS ZAC IS BACK...
We understand that he is The Influencer and is The Man Of The Designer Cloth, and we, too, have missed The Zac Attack in action.
Also involved in the melee that ensued because of that horror fall in December was Lyle Hewitson who should be in action soon.
Though good to see “Punton” back in the thick of it all at Happy Valley yesterday and riding a winner for good measure, the man love showered on The Chosen One by the HKJC Twitter Team last night was a tad nauseating.
All those fawning tweets combined to make an Adele song downright gangsta. It’s kinda creepy...and a tad transparent.
Know what we mean, darlings? Hmmmmmm?
......................................
Where to Next when we don’t know where is Now?
The problem is that it’s getting late Someone pressed “Play”, they couldn’t wait
Keyboard warriors are marching fast
They don’t see everything that’s passed
Nobody’s right when everybody’s wrong
And so it all just plods along
Every solution is in another bubble
Different voices but the same old troubles
No one’s listening cos they’re living in fear
They’re seeing things before they appear
Common sense has gone for lunch
Facebook says Okay is good enough
Draw up a new list of priorities
There’s a changing of the guard, you see
The old ways no longer work at all
Shrinkage has things looking rather small
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstpatten
We saw what was a familiar pattern
Sexting, breakdowns, balls and bails
Novax, Kovaks and quarantine jail
The games are all unraveling fast
Trust and support are coming last
There’s a need now for a clean slate
And new world leaders cos the time is late
The usual suspects and their magic millions
Here comes more of those Chinese billions
It’s just Corporate Speak and being inscrutable
The game is old and has become intolerable
Some still talk about living the dream
Those dreams are only pretentious schemes
Houses of cards and smoke and mirrors
Oompah Loompahs and order takers
The narrative still stays the same
Even though many talk of change
But it’s all just a game of pretence
It always comes down to financial gain
The rich get richer, the poor get screwed
What happens next to me and you?
We can’t just survive, we want to live
No more only taking, man, it’s time to give
Throw down the gauntlet the games must stop
Enough of the toxicity and jealous talk
Time for making good things happen
Fairytale endings and a Taylor made captain
......................................
SLY MOVES...
It was hardly a surprise, but in these weird times made weirder and where for some there is nothing better than hoarding more money than one knows what to do with before finally keeling over, it’s just more proof that nothing is what it tries to appear and that the spirit of Gordon Gekko lives on.
A few months ago, the Hong Kong Jockey Club announced with somewhat muted trumpeting that Brazilian Jockey Silvestre de Sousa was returning to ride in Hong Kong during his winter break in the UK. We yawned.
We’ve heard so many names trotted out over the recent months as coming over, but it’s all too often pie in the sky thinking. The reality is that despite maintaining something of a fast diminishing five star lifestyle and very low taxes, Hong Kong is hardly the throbbing hard on it once was.
It’s a city on life support with a horror show starring a bumbling Chief Executive until the Motherland finally calls Time on her role. Hong Kong has been spanked enough for the mayhem of 2019 by being forced to endure Calamity Jane.
As for SdS, apart from not exactly being one of our favourite riders, having him ride in the racing jurisdiction would have made it four Samba Boys in Hong Kong when adding in the magic man and amigos Ruan Maia and Vagner Borges.
This might have been a tad too close to something remembered by Hong Kong racing’s loyal army of aunts and uncles: the Aussie gangs of the Seventies and Eighties that came, saw and disappeared from the city before the then-newly formed Independent Commission Against Corruption began tightening the noose around their chicken necks. It’s quite a fascinating list of opportunists who rode into a very gullible Hong Kong and made hay while the sun shone.
Who could blame them?
Moving right along, there then came the news that Sly won’t be going anywhere soon to get rich quick because of travel restrictions that would affect his family and million dollar lifestyle. Awwwww.
On the weekend came the news that the former Champion British Jockey would be spending his winter months riding in Riyadh.
Anyone out there bummed out by this news? Thought so. How about something random to make things more odd than they already are?
......................................
MOORE, MOOR AND MORE
We choked on our congee when some of Hong Kong’s racing uncles were heard talking about the return of former Champion Trainer John Moore to Hong Kong racing.
This is not exactly true. They got John
Moore mixed up with Daniel Moor who starts riding soon in the city along with Luke Currie.
Getting back to John Moore, he’s closed his training operations on the Gold Coast, whereas plans for a new partnership with brother Gary never materialised, and, just as we thought, he’s back in Hong Kong with his family and has rebooted the Moore bloodstock business and “racing advisory agency”.
One of us were at a certain popular restaurant where John Boy was entertaining and making different pitches to one of Hong Kong’s biggest spending owners with horses strategically placed in every key stable. Just spreading the wealth, you know...
A week later, the same owner was being entertained by an expat Trainer at the same restaurant and was being quite passionately pitched to purchase one of his gallopers in Oz.
It was like a scaled down Magic Millions sale going on with some side dishes of pasta and garlic prawns.
Still with the bloodstock game, what we keep hearing is how well former pinup jockey Kei Chiong is doing travelling along her new career path.
No surprise. She’s extremely popular, she speaks Cantonese and Mandarin, her Chinese clients include a number of very well known owners who also use her to advise them as to which stables and riders, preferably Chinese, to use. Why risk having anything getting lost in translation?
Yassir, more changing of the guard against the background of a city undergoing a severe makeover.
......................................
WELL, HELLOOOOOOOO...
One racing wag to another: “Who’s the pukka sounding new chap with the Hong Kong Racing’s Broadcasting team?”
“Ahhhhh, that’s Monty from the Flying Circus”.
......................................
SHORT CUTS
Really? One of the most successful training partnerships in racing in the land of Oz are going their separate ways? Sometimes, success breeds contempt... and muchos greed...Right?
......................................
It’s become boring: Super rich Family SaSa in Hong Kong loading up the last race on the weekend with their runners and one of them saluting.
At Shatin last Sunday, there were four of their runners. The money was on the Beauty ridden by Vagner Borges. Piles and piles of it. Alas, Heza Beauty, the outsider of the four with Antoine Hamelin in the saddle, saluted at almost 80-1. Karma is a strange animal. Let’s now all go nestle in Mama SaSa’s Bird’s Nest.
......................................
Gentleman Roy
Hmmmm, wonder why after the sixth race at Caulfield on Wednesday afternoon, jockey Jamie Mott riding red hot favourite Gentleman Roy for Team Hayes suddenly incurred The Wrath Of Twitter. We were busy doing the dishes.
......................................
A couple of months ago, it was “Harry Who?” and “the other Samba boy”. These days, and it’s not because the competition in the riding ranks might seem thin on the ground, but Harry Bentley, with considerable support from the Ricky Yiu stable, Brazilian Ruan Maia are suddenly amongst the winners as is Antoine Hamelin. In fact all three rode winners at Happy Valley last night.
Another thing: perhaps because of the new opportunities presented to them, we’re seeing vastly improved race riding from Matthew Poon, and Alfred Chan and a renaissance of sorts from Hong Kong born riders Derek Leung, who rode a double last night, and Matthew Chadwick.
Once promising to apprentices and now established senior riders, both are enjoying one of their most successful seasons in a long time.
As for Vincent Ho, the regular rider for Golden Sixty has not ridden better. He is way up there.
......................................
“YOUR STORY”, THEIR STORIES...FASCINATING
Gareth Hall, the hardest working man in horse racing and just about everything else on RSN, is now behind an extremely good series and podcast called “Your Story”.
The name of the programme says it all and, to date, Brother Gareth aka The G-Man has interviewed, amongst others, racing analyst Deane Lester- fascinating- the career paths taken by race caller Matt Hill, and what’s next for Melbourne Cup winning jockey Jye McNeil.
There’s also a brilliant introduction to those who might not know what Jockey Harry Coffey goes through living with cystic fibrosis and remains an upbeat as ever. Inspiring stuff.
Very good series and excellent interviews that don’t cover the same old terrain- and with all mention of bubbles removed.