A refreshed Douglas Whyte is back from suspension and thrust into the hot seat in today's Jockey Challenge at Sha Tin, and might well have it put to bed before the meeting is half over. Oddsmakers initially flagged a slightly more generous price for Whyte than the 2.0 when betting opened last night, but it's difficult to ignore his early strength. He opens the card with Dash Ahead, Cool Runnings, Endless Luck and Darren in the first four races, and nobody would be the least surprised if all four
A refreshed Douglas Whyte is back from suspension and thrust into the hot seat in today's Jockey Challenge at Sha Tin, and might well have it put to bed before the meeting is half over.
Oddsmakers initially flagged a slightly more generous price for Whyte than the 2.0 when betting opened last night, but it's difficult to ignore his early strength.
He opens the card with Dash Ahead, Cool Runnings, Endless Luck and Darren in the first four races, and nobody would be the least surprised if all four were to salute and put second favourite Mathew Chadwick (3.3) and the remainder of the riders into chase mode before half-time.
Chadwick looks to have the goods in race five with Penglai Xianzi before better rides later in the card, but Whyte is not lacking there, either, with Tuscan Spirit (race eight) and Holi Ravioli (race nine) strong chances, too. A number of riders have one or two chances during the afternoon that could see them on the points board, but assessors could not find Brett Prebble and Howard Cheng Yue-tin as better than 10.0 chance.
Only Whyte looks to have real depth across most of his 10 mounts and backers should take the early odds and hope it plays to the script because there will be no chance to get on him "in play" if it does. (www.racing.scmp.com).