Cheng and Chui pay price for careless riding
After an unusually quiet opening stanza, stipendiary stewards are starting to get their eye in and two more jockeys felt their wrath for causing interference at the idiosyncratic Valley circuit.
Howard Cheng Yue-tin, who emerged from the afternoon with a double and second spot on the jockeys' table, also scored his first suspension for the term for causing interference at the top of the straight in his race one victory on Brown Beauty.
Cheng pleaded guilty to the careless riding charge for a shift that saw Classic King (Eddie Lai Wai-ming) checked and was suspended for two days, with the stretch to take effect after Sha Tin on Sunday.
Marco Chui Kwan-lai was carpeted for his ride on the John Size-trained My Home Town in the Police Cup (race 10). In attempting to push the chestnut through a gap in the home straight, Chui caused severe interference to Olivier Doleuze on Bear Macho.
Chui was suspended for two days but was also fined HK$15,000, as stewards deemed the degree of interference to Bear Macho as 'significantly more severe'.
Terry Wong Chi-wai caused interference when making his winning run on Rocket And Gold in the Lockhart Handicap but escaped with a severe reprimand.
Eric Saint-Martin stared down a suspension of his own in the early stages of his victory on Bullish Win for Tony Cruz.
Stewards even went as far as charging him with careless riding for interference sustained by My Smartie (Vincent Sit Shun-keung).
Saint-Martin pleaded 'not guilty' and then conducted such a solid defence that stewards were converted to his way of thinking and withdrew the charge.
Felix Coetzee was stood down from rides on the second half of the programme after complaining of back pain in the sixth event.
Coetzee was on board the John Size-trained King Fay Fay, and with the jockey in difficulty, the gelding did not muster his early pace, settling near the rear of the field.
Coetzee now serves the two meeting ban he sustained at the Valley on Wednesday night.
Affable Gary Ng Ting-keung prepared 19 winners for the whole of last season but has begun like a bullet in the new term, with veteran Kingston Winner bringing up result number seven after just 11 meetings.
Ng now sits in fifth spot on the trainers' ladder and seems to be enjoying his time in the limelight.
'It has been a really good run and most of the horses in the yard seem to be going well,' Ng said.
Kingston Winner has raced three times this season for two wins and a second and Ng says the nine-year-old is in a purple patch of form. 'He did not win last year and while that was disappointing, he's come down so far in the rating that he was off a very competitive mark this season,' Ng said.
'He's feeling very well at the moment and again today, he hasn't won by a big margin so the rehandicap should not be too severe. Who knows, maybe there's one more left in him.'
Another trainer to make an early season mark has been Andy Leung Ting-wah, who welcomed winner number five when Rising Win capitalised on a patient ride from Alex Lai Hoi-wing.
Ironically, stable retained jockey Brett Doyle has been on board just one of the five, missing out again yesterday due to suspension.
Rising Win was one of two nine-year-olds to arrive on the 11-event programme, with Kingston Winner (race four). King Of Fish, a shade unlucky to be runner-up to Rising Win, is yet another galloper of the same vintage.
