Coetzee makes the wrong choice once again
Felix Coetzee has a recurring nightmare that is driving him crazy and throws up questions no psychologist can answer. When the Tony Cruz stable has two runners in a feature race, he agonises over a decision before picking the ace - which turns out to be the joker - and a substitute jockey comes in for less than two minutes to garner the cash and the glory.
It's become a sadly familiar script this year for the master South African horseman and, try as he might, he was unable to shake off the pattern yesterday as Bullish Luck, this time with Brett Prebble in the saddle, stormed down the centre of the track to win the $3 million Chairman's Trophy (1,600m) at Sha Tin. In doing so, Bullish Luck assured himself of being one of Hong Kong's frontline candidates for the $14 million Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup on April 24, where he will attempt to make amends for his narrow defeat in the $18 million Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup last December at the hands of top Irish filly Alexander Goldrun.
Coetzee, 46, tried his best to smile but the perfectionist that is so much a part of his personality was burning up inside. A man who prides himself on being a winner never likes to be wrong, let alone finding himself on the flipside of a selection decision four times.
The Stewards Cup (Bullish Luck), Hong Kong Gold Cup (Perfect Partner), Hong Kong-Macau Trophy (Helene Pillaging) and now the Chairman's Trophy have all gone the way of the Cruz stable, for which Coetzee is stable jockey, with Prebble and Christophe Soumillon sharing the spoils between them.
Fortunately, Coetzee has the ultimate consolation prize - champion Silent Witness - waiting in the wings to ensure his sanity is maintained. 'What can you do?' Coetzee said last night. 'I knew a week ago that this would be a difficult decision and I spoke with Tony about it a number of times.
'There were two things that made me sway in favour of Perfect Partner today. One, that it looked as though there would still be some moisture in the ground, as there has been for a number of weeks.
'Secondly, there didn't look like there would be a lot of pace on, and Perfect Partner has the early tactical speed to adapt to those circumstances. All of a sudden, both those assumptions had gone out the window.
'The club described the track as good-to-firm this morning, and then there was the announcement that Saturn was going to go forward. All of a sudden, totally contrary to our early ideas, we had a fast-pace race that was going to be decided on fast ground and under those circumstances, naturally you'd want to be on Bullish Luck.'
Instead, Coetzee was on Perfect Partner, the horse he chose when Bullish Luck won the Stewards Cup [with Perfect Partner a late scratching], but the horse he went with when Perfect Partner led throughout in the Hong Kong Gold Cup. Yesterday Perfect Partner, Coetzee's nemesis horse, was given every chance but weakened in the final 100m to finish sixth.
