Beadman struggles to find the post
The last month must feel like one of the longest in jockey Darren Beadman's celebrated career - after the champion Australian raised the bat for a half-century of outs yesterday.
It has been a frustrating start to the year for both Beadman and trainer John Moore, who have had a string of recent placings without getting a drought breaker since their last win 53 runs ago with Lucky Amore on January 6.
The duo have combined for 17 placings since then and to rub salt into the wound had to submit to two more narrow defeats late on the card - Elegance Desire finishing a short head second to the Danny Shum Chap-shing-trained, and ironically named, Cheerful City in the last.
Shum, however, deserved to be cheerful after successfully bringing his galloper back from some fetlock troubles.
'The owner bought this horse himself and according to his pedigree he was always going to be able to get more distance, but unfortunately an injury to his fetlock has meant we have had to keep him to the sprint distances at Happy Valley recently,' Shum said.
'We decided to try him over further with the blinkers off and he was able to perform much better.'
Beadman and Moore's other runner-up, Irish Jig, was bettered by the Almond Lee Yee-tat-trained Ole Ole, who lobbed at odds of $873.50 with just 105 pounds and apprentice rider Ben So Tik-hung on his back.
'I have to give all the credit for the win to the weight,' Lee said. 'The horse has not been reliable and he's only a small horse so his future might be limited. But maybe he will be like Top Honor, who I trained before. He was disappointing until he found the dirt.'
