By MURRAY BELL, Racing Post (Hong Kong)Brett Prebble will again answer to the domestic dominance of Douglas Whyte in the jockeys' premiership, but at Royal Ascot on Saturday he has the opportunity to further expand his personal domain of superior performance. Prebble has emerged as the leading jockey in the international arena and the recent KrisFlyer Sprint in Singapore on Sacred Kingdom gave him his third foreign Group One as a representative of Hong Kong.Now we are admittedly talking about a

By MURRAY BELL, Racing Post (Hong Kong)

Brett Prebble will again answer to the domestic dominance of Douglas Whyte in the jockeys' premiership, but at Royal Ascot on Saturday he has the opportunity to further expand his personal domain of superior performance. Prebble has emerged as the leading jockey in the international arena and the recent KrisFlyer Sprint in Singapore on Sacred Kingdom gave him his third foreign Group One as a representative of Hong Kong.

Now we are admittedly talking about a limited sample here, with just six Group One races having fallen to Hong Kong-trained horses on foreign soil since Fairy King Prawn created the precedent in the 2000 Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo, ridden by Robbie Fradd.

But if Prebble and Sacred Kingdom can conquer the best from Europe and Australia on Saturday in the Golden Jubilee Stakes, that will give Prebble four of Hong Kong's eight foreign successes, and 50 per cent would be an amazing strike rate for something that most jockeys regard as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Prebble came to Hong Kong originally for the final tranche of the 2002-03 season. He arrived with outstanding credentials, having been champion apprentice and twice Melbourne's champion jockey.

However, after he settled in at Sha Tin he also learned what so many other jockeys had experienced before him - it's a thankless task pushing around horses that no one else wants to ride at the back end of any season.

Prebble broke through at only his sixth ride on the Tony Cruz-trained Successful Spirit at Sha Tin on March 23, 2003. The gelding started at 26-1, making it the shortest priced horse he'd handled to that point. However, it was another 81 rides before his next winner, the David Oughton-trained Bravissimo (22-1) at Happy Valley on May 7 and things were far from rosy.

The turnaround rested on the ample shoulders of a noble grey called Precision, who should have been ridden by Whyte in the Group One Champions & Chater Cup (2,400m), but the Durban Demon was held to a prior engagement for Blue Stitch by trainer Tony Millard.

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