It was all about firsts for four jockeys at Sha Tin yesterday as William Pike, Gerald Mosse, Brett Doyle and Olivier Doleuze declared the season officially open, reports the HK Racing PostIt says: Aside from new apprentice Kevin Leung Ka-wai, who has had just a handful of rides, they were the only remaining "maidens" for the new term and set about changing all that from the opening race.Pike offered a fairly hesitant victory wave as the Danny Shum Chap-shing-trained Forever Fortune lan
It was all about firsts for four jockeys at Sha Tin yesterday as William Pike, Gerald Mosse, Brett Doyle and Olivier Doleuze declared the season officially open, reports the HK Racing Post
It says: Aside from new apprentice Kevin Leung Ka-wai, who has had just a handful of rides, they were the only remaining "maidens" for the new term and set about changing all that from the opening race.
Pike offered a fairly hesitant victory wave as the Danny Shum Chap-shing-trained Forever Fortune landed the opener at lengthy odds to open the Western Australian rider's Hong Kong account in a humble Class Five but there was a reason.
"I've run clear a few times before and been caught. This time we kept going," he smiled. "It's so good to get that one out of the way. It has been very frustrating.
"It's so competitive just getting on good rides and handicapping makes the races themselves very competitive, too. You don't see many horses win by big margins here. So it's tough but I did give myself a chance on this horse today. He didn't have the best run through the race last time and still wasn't that far away.
"Danny told me the horse has a lot more ability than a 22-rater but has had problems. He's moving well at the moment so he might be able to win again."
Doleuze, as one would have expected, was more expressive when the Caspar Fownes-trained Above All broke the ice for him in another upset in the seventh.
"Oh that's nice. Back on track at last," laughed Doleuze at ride 45 for the season after finishing second in two races earlier on the card. "That bottle of champagne they give for winning the race will taste very sweet."
Doleuze had been aboard in Above All's only previous win, also at 1,600m, and said the parallels didn't end there.
"The race was run at a very similar tempo and my horse really gave me a good response sprinting off the slow pace," he said. "He's still a big baby and I like him. He can get better." Then there was Flying Supreme, who won for Doyle, with trainer Andy Leung Ting-wah making the race-winning tactical decision to send him forward from gate 14, despite top weight.
"I only thought there was one leader in the race and a field that looked divided into two sections. If we dropped back we were going to be with the second section at the back - a lot of inexperienced horses without much chance - and would get too far away so I asked Brett to jump and go," he said. (www.racing.scmp.com)