Ace Mosse proves he's the big-race specialist
Eighteen years after he began his Hong Kong career, brilliant French rider Gerald Mosse flew into the grim storm that was Sha Tin yesterday and plucked out a silver lining as he took the only Group One that still eluded him.
Of the 14 Group Ones run this season, only the Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup did not have Mosse on its honour roll, but the Frenchman remedied that with a lucky pick-up ride as trainer Peter Ho Leung again provided the upset.
Two years ago, the Ho-trained Packing Winner upset Viva Pataca in the race, and this time it was Mr Medici in the sodden conditions who crushed the hopes of Viva Pataca's connections that he might land a fourth Champions & Chater crown. Mosse, who had ridden as a club jockey earlier in the season, had heard in Europe that he was being sought for Mr Medici by the horse's owner.
'There was no racing in Paris this weekend, so I rang the owner and told him that if he still wanted me for the ride, I would be happy to come,' said Mosse. 'I looked at Mr Medici's last two runs and thought maybe he was not racing as well as before, but I knew if he brought out his better form he would be a chance. I'm really very happy to have won all of the different Group One races here - it is a very nice thing to have achieved.'
Ho said that Mr Medici's owner - Allen Shi Lop-tak - had wanted a Group One jockey for a Group One race, although he is generally happy to support the local riders on a regular basis in lesser events.
'In the Queen Mother's Cup, Mr Medici looked a little disappointing but Derek Leung [Ka-chun] didn't give him the best ride,' said Ho. 'He rode the horse with cover and this is a horse who prefers to be out in the daylight. Normally, the horse is so consistent, so when you look and see that he finished only ninth last time, it is obvious something was not right and you can forget he ran. I was worried today that maybe the ground would be too soft but he handled it well.'
Mosse parked Mr Medici outside the tepid lead set by Super Pistachio (Matthew Chadwick) and that was the tale of the race, with the pair spending little energy through the run and not suffering the splashing and kick-back that the rest of the small field received, then fighting out the finish.
'I think he enjoyed the ground,' said Mosse. 'And he picked up when I asked him all the way down the straight.'
Three-time winner Viva Pataca (Darren Beadman) camped behind the first two throughout, but was unable to get to them in the straight, while Packing Winner gave Ho an extra result finishing fourth.
'We know that Viva Pataca is not at his best in these sorts of conditions,' said trainer John Moore. 'It turns the race into a real slog and that's not Viva's style, but you can see he tried hard. It just wasn't his kind of surface.'
But if Viva Pataca was unsuited, then the merging four-year-old stars, Derby winner Super Satin (Douglas Whyte) and the Sean Woods-trained King Dancer were even less adept, with Super Satin eased down in a distant last place.
'When it was so wet before the race, I said to Douglas that if the horse was really not handling it to take care of him and make sure he wasn't hurt,' said Super Satin's trainer Caspar Fownes. 'After, he said the horse was struggling almost by the time they got out of the straight the first time. It's really disappointing, because I came here wanting to see how he would handle 2,400m but, anyway, he seems to have come out of it with no problems and we'll have him back for the big ones next season.'
Woods said King Dancer was all at sea in the ground, too, but had emerged unscathed and would head for a summer break.
