All's Well that ends well for visionary Dye
Like most observers, Shane Dye went to Sha Tin convinced that Floral Pegasus would take some beating in the Japan Racing Association Trophy (1,400m) - but unlike most, the jockey went equally convinced that he might just have the necessary horsepower to do it with All's Well.
'Sure, he was the one to beat and I wouldn't have been surprised if Floral Pegasus beat me, but I'm not stunned we beat him either,' Dye said after completing a double for his retaining trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing on Best Choice and All's Well.
With Floral Pegasus having to work to get across from his barrier 14 draw as others pushed up underneath him, Dye bided his time with All's Well before bringing him inside the 200m to overpower the red-hot favourite and Gold Striker.
'I actually thought I'd be close like the other day, perhaps only a length or two behind Floral Pegasus today but the leaders did go pretty quick early and I was quite happy to be a bit further back,' Dye said. 'When we got to the 600m, my horse was really travelling well under me and I knew he'd finish with a rush but he is already looking for further than 1,400m. I had to get at him to pick up then he was very strong.'
With owners and trainers of four-year-olds looking to the Derby in the immediate future, there is little doubt Dye is thinking something similar about All's Well a year hence.
'He's talented and foolproof and he's going to be a very nice horse this time next year,' he said.
Lower grade stablemate Best Choice on the other hand might not be a horse of a different colour - they are both bays - but that's where the similarity ends.
Yesterday's all-weather win for the gelding atoned for two moderate recent runs on the turf and was the combination of an idea from Shum with a clever execution by Dye on the one-paced stayer who had scored three starts ago over 2,200m at Sha Tin.
'His last two runs on the turf were just awful,' Dye said. 'But his work had continued to be pretty good on the all-weather so Danny thought we should give it a try in a race. But he's very one-paced so the plan was to get him out of the gates, go forward and keep rolling, not let anyone turn it into a stop-start race.'
