Whyte slams poor mounts for international jockeys
Champion jockey Douglas Whyte spoke out yesterday about the poor standard of mounts allocated to a number of jockeys in tomorrow night's International Jockeys Challenge at Happy Valley.
Whyte, four times champion jockey of Hong Kong and renowned for his deep knowledge of form, said the normal local rules under which fields are selected for restricted-class races in Hong Kong should be changed for the jockeys challenge.
'The Jockey Club should be selecting the best horses available for this race, to ensure that the series is as exciting and competitive as it can possibly be,' Whyte said.
'But have a look at tomorrow night's fields. There are some horses in there that have absolutely no chance at all, while some better horses such as Classa Win and Money Strong, who would have had a chance, are reserves and most unlikely to get a start.'
Whyte said that local rules that give horses immunity from the ballot if they have been a victim of it at their previous entry, as well as the trump-card system where a trainer can help secure a start for a horse, should be scrapped for this series.
'This series is all about bringing in the world's best jockeys, so surely it makes sense that we give them the best quality of mounts that are available for races of this class,' Whyte said.
'But I don't think we're doing the right thing by bringing in jockeys from around the world to ride in a championship series like this, which after all is spread across just three races, and then giving them rides on things that have simply no hope.'
There is no bigger victim tomorrow night than last year's championship winner Damien Oliver, who scrambled a one-point victory over America's Victor Espinoza in a thriller that went right down to the wire.
'They certainly didn't want me winning the series again,' said Oliver, tongue in cheek. 'I was looking forward to this meeting so much, especially after winning it last year was such a big buzz, but without wanting to sound critical it is a bit disappointing.
'My best mount is Shenanagan [race six], for David Hall, and he's drawn poorly in barrier 11.'
Two of Oliver's three mounts, Smart Chief and Modern Prospects, are renowned dirt track performers with no serious prospects on turf. Modern Prospect, in fact, has raced on turf nine times at Sha Tin and four at Happy Valley and never managed to run a placing.
Jockey Club executive director of racing, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, accepted the criticism and said it was something the club can do better next year.
'The problem a few years ago was convincing trainers to support these races,' Engelbrecht-Bresges said.
'But now the series and the races are quite popular and I think we should, perhaps, look at selecting the runners on current form.
'Horses that have placings in their recent races could be given preference for selection over horses that do not. This way, we would be ensuring the races have as much depth as possible.
'We are always looking at ways of doing things better and this is an improvement that we will look at introducing for next year. The International Jockeys Championship has been a great success, but it is ready to go up another level.'
