Yiu to meet Kingdom owner to map out plans
Sacred Kingdom's trainer and jockey will meet owner Sin Kan-yuk on Thursday to map out future plans for the world champion sprinter after his luckless defeat on Sunday.
Trainer Ricky Yiu Poon-fie and jockey Gerald Mosse know the privilege of being associated with a champion brings with it the expectations that he'll never be beaten.
As much as Yiu and Mosse are putting on a brave face, they know they are dealing with an owner whose reaction to Sacred Kingdom's first defeat was to sack jockey Danny Nikolic. And that means everyone's walking on eggshells until Sin declares the team remains intact and they will all press on together.
Mosse rode Sacred Kingdom in the same manner he has in all his starts around a corner, but when he wanted some room in the straight on Sunday in the Group One Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup, there was none available. The super sprinter was basically under lock and key for 300 metres while arch-rival Good Ba Ba flew past, and on to victory.
Yiu said: 'He was pocketed for so long he only got to race for around 50 metres, so he basically didn't have a race and that's how he pulled up - not just 100 per cent, but more like 110 per cent.
'You have to understand there is a lot of pressure on everyone with a horse like this,' he said. 'There is an expectation the horse will win every time and if he doesn't, there are always plenty of people around who will want to read something bad into it.
'There are also a lot of people who love conspiracy theories and don't really understand racing. An experienced racing person will look at Sunday's race and say 'bad luck, but that's racing'. But not everyone sees it the same way as an experienced racing person.' Mosse confirmed he will be meeting Sin later in the week but offered no other comment.
While the racing agenda for Sacred Kingdom will be confirmed on Thursday, one option already ruled out is a return match with Good Ba Ba in the Group One Champions Mile on April 27. 'We definitely won't be stretching him to a mile, this season at least,' Yiu said.
The options for Sacred Kingdom are a new race, the Group Two Gome Cup (1,200m) on May 1, or the Krisflyer Sprint over the same distance against international competition at Singapore's Kranji racecourse on May 18.
