Whyte steps up attack and whittles Prebble's lead to 6

By HK Staff

The script started to have a more familiar look to it at Sha Tin yesterday as Douglas Whyte cut further into Brett Prebble's jockey championship lead and the street corner tip to be the champion trainer this season, John Size, saddled up four winners to open a gap at the head of the ladder for the first time. The Dream Team of Size and Whyte combined with Dr Win, The Rifle and You Gotta Pay, while Zac Purton got into the act with Shining Victory in the day's featured Kowloon Tong Club Challenge

"It isn't often you can say that drawing a low number at the start up the straight is any advantage but it was today," Purton said. "While there were quite a few others getting hemmed in or in each other's way further out on the track, where you'd normally prefer to be, I was able to make my move whenever I wanted to."

One race later, You Gotta Pay took Size five clear in the championship over Tony Cruz (42 wins), while the five-times champion trainer might have an Achilles heel in the number of victories he has at Happy Valley, the city course is getting plenty of credit lately for some of his Sha Tin wins. Yesterday, it was the turn of inexperienced three-year-old Dr Win and the disappointing year-older The Rifle, who had come back to the bigger track at Sha Tin with an improved focus on their racing.

"Dr Win got to the rail at Happy Valley in his first race and it got tight and many of the new horses there do get claustrophobic with speed on and turning sharply," Size agreed. "But coming to the bigger track, Douglas used his speed to go to the front and the horse himself travels kindly and saves his energy for the last 200m."

The Rifle finally broke through for a first victory that Size and Whyte both expected much earlier than start number 11, but perhaps his disappointing form also took a contribution from being tried at longer trips than the 1,200m yesterday.

"He's been weak and timid and maybe I made a bad call saying he wanted further because he's been choking up at the finish of 1,600m, but he has such a huge action and there's so much of him, he indicates he wants the mile," Whyte said. "It looks like he's a dead-set 1,200m horse. He spat the bit out today and quickened up. He looked good, though there wasn't a lot behind him and there wasn't any more in the tank, so I hope the handicapper notes that."

Size also conceded the gelding had raced below expectations, but is "more savvy after a few runs at Happy Valley" leading into the win.

"He seems to have plenty of ability but hasn't produced it before now on the track," Size said. "The draw was difficult on paper but he actually got a great trip and finished off the way we had expected him to before now. He gives the feel of a miler and maybe he'll toughen up again for it later but he is just not as advanced as we hoped six months ago."

You Gotta Pay, on the other hand, has done little wrong and made it three wins and two seconds from five starts in the Choi Hung Handicap (1,400m), despite covering ground.

"He's making steady improvement with racing but can get unbalanced, so he's probably better covering ground than getting in among the field. Obviously as he goes up in class to stronger races, we'll have to fine tune that," Size said.

Whyte's treble sliced one more of his deficit in the jockeys' championship, with Prebble (65 wins) leading by a handy seven victories after managing a double in reply.