Mosse laments one that got away
Nobody knew better than Gerald Mosse that the top French rider should have had a treble - but he really had nobody to blame but himself.
Mosse won on Care Free Prince for Me Tsui Yu-sak and followed up with Booming City half an hour later for Almond Lee Yee-tat, but ignored the latter trainer's entreaties to ride seventh-race winner Skyview Bar, on which Mosse was unbeaten last season in two attempts over 1,600m.
'Almond almost begged me to ride Skyview Bar,' Mosse admitted. 'I told him he had rocks in his head running it over 1,000m.
'He said he thought the horse was in great form and could run well. I couldn't believe it. He even said that if I wouldn't ride it, he wouldn't run it, but he changed his mind.'
Instead Lee engaged Howard Cheng Yue-tin, who landed the five-year-old a winner at the short trip as part of a double for his opening day's work of the season.
'He has always been a horse with plenty of ability and plenty of speed over longer,' said Lee, who did his training apprenticeship under Australian champion David Hayes. 'But it's a David Hayes theory - in fact probably more of an Australian thing - that you can always get a good run first-up out of a good horse over a distance that is too short for them normally.'
But Lee also believes that a gear change to side winkers made an important difference to Skyview Bar's ability to go the speed, and even to set the pace yesterday.
'Always in his races before he was looking around and he couldn't have run 21.7 seconds for 400m early in today's race if he was doing that,' he said. 'The side winkers really focused him on the job.'
Hot favourite Friendly Gains (Glen Boss) looked to have Skyview Bar's measure at the 200m when he went past the gelding, but with a pull in the weights, the miler clawed his way back to the front in the final stages.
While Mosse was happy to have a laugh at his own expense with Skyview Bar, he was getting only rave reviews from Lee over Booming City's win.
The trainer has had the unsound six-year-old for only three starts now for two wins, with yesterday's victory the first for Mosse: 'It was a great ride. He rode him a bit further back than Alex Lai when he won on him last time and he knows that he is a horse who can get 1,600m so he was very patient and got the timing of his run just right.
'Booming City had a good record when he came from New Zealand a couple of years ago but he has had leg problems all the time. My low pressure style seems to suit him, with a lot of swimming and slow work, he isn't easy to train. I'm just happy the horse has been able to win for Mr Ling [Chiu-shing] because he's a great guy and we've had a good association going back to the horses he had with David Hayes, like Charming City.'
