Brett Prebble sealed a winning treble and the riding honours at Sha Tin on Sunday in extraordinary scenes when a flash storm hit the racecourse just as jockeys and club staff were preparing to start a race, reports Racing Post HK.
The club's information was that heavy rain was still another 10 to 15 minutes from the course as the runners reached the top of the 1,000m chute for the ninth event yesterday, but suddenly the storm surrounded the starting point ahead of schedule, soaking raceday staff, some unprepared for the conditions.
"Once we were told that the storm was not coming soon, that it was here right now, the only decision we could make was to run the race," said club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges. "Bringing the horses back would have taken longer and would have been, potentially, more dangerous."
Gerald Mosse, eventual runner-up on Winfull Patrol, said that jockeys could see the rain pouring ahead of the barriers and also back behind them but, for a few moments in the eye of the storm, the starting area remained dry. That changed before the off, though, with Harbour Alert damaging his 11 gate when he attempted to push through it and causing a delay while runners were moved out one stall. By the time the race jumped, the storm was right on top of them and the runners ploughed through the rain, spread out over an enormous amount of ground.
"I guess a few out the back weren't handling it and maybe there were some visibility issues back there too," said Prebble, who benefitted from both the rain and the high speed lead that allowed David Hall-trained Good Luck Boy to get across into midfield from gate five and ultimately claim the tearaway leader near home.
"The pace stretched the field out and helped him drop his head and concentrate and it definitely helped us get a better spot - I'd been pretty confident off his work until he drew low," Prebble said. "We took off the crossed noseband and blinkers, which had woken him up too much for some of his recent races. He's a horse I think will improve a lot next season."
Prebble earlier took out the griffin race on Me Tsui Yu-sak-trained two-year-old New Asia Sunrise on which he had done a lot of the preparation work and the jockey was also happy to land Lucky Scepter as the middle peg of his three after having had a big hand in his training since a change of stables.
"Very satisfying to have been a big part of the preparation," he said. "Lucky Scepter always used to take off and overrace in the mornings and races and I've done a lot with him to get him to relax. I missed his first win when I made a mistake and took another ride, and the weight was too light last time, but great to win on him today. When we had the C+3 and a wide draw, I actually was thinking he'd be the sort of horse suited getting out to the outside rail by himself and running on, but the pace was too slow and I aborted that plan."
Prebble said New Asia Sunrise's trials and work had him going to the debut run confident of winning when he drew a wide gate down the straight course, but his future prospects may depend on how he grows.
"He's got a good engine but he hasn't got the conformation," he said. "He's not that big so I worry that next season when all these other young horses have grown up he might find them tougher to beat but he's got the ability."