Ambitious Dragon's trainer, Tony Millard, and champion jockey Douglas Whyte were at loggerheads over where the fault lay after the reigning Horse Of The Year's defeat in the BMW Champions Mile at Sha Tin yesterday.
After getting back in the field against the inside rail in the middle stages, Ambitious Dragon finished on to be fourth and just over a length from the John Moore-trained Xtension, who replicated his only other Hong Kong victory in the same race last year, but Millard pointed the blame squarely at Whyte's ride.
'That was a very disappointing ride for a top jockey - we spoke before about the race and the one thing that we didn't want to happen was what happened,' Millard said. 'I said categorically not to go to the rail and Ambitious Dragon ended up on the rail. I want to watch the replay again but I thought he had the chance to get two wide at one point and he didn't take it. The horse has finished the race off in 21.9 seconds and did a fantastic job but he was put in exactly the place he shouldn't have been.'
Whyte hit back at the criticism, pointing to the stewards' suspension of rival rider Kevin Shea on Musir for causing interference that put Ambitious Dragon onto the fence, against Whyte's wishes.
'It's really difficult riding for someone like Tony - yes, we had discussed beforehand to stay one off the rail, if I could, but incidents occur and a jockey has got three days for interference when I was ridden into the rail,' Whyte said. 'If you look, I've got Ambitious Dragon's head turned sideways to try and keep him off the fence but I've got no alternative, and Tye Angland got spat out the back and nearly fell.'
But Whyte said he didn't believe the incident caused Ambitious Dragon's defeat.