Whyte's hot streak lands treble
Champion jockey Douglas Whyte ripped the heart out of the Happy Valley programme last night to take out the riding honours with a treble and did not even require what looked to be his best mount.
The jungle drums are beating that Whyte may find himself back on Ambitious Dragon in the Hong Kong Cup next month, with Frenchman Maxime Guyon possibly required to ride Byword for his French boss, Andre Fabre.
But the 'Durban Demon' said he had heard nothing and got on with making short work of the Jockey Challenge with victories on Great Renown for Richard Gibson in the third then a double for John Size on Gamekeepers (race four) and Pocket Rockets (race six).
But the shortest priced of Whyte's rides, Elusive Prince, was declared a non-runner in the fifth race after leaving the gates lengths behind the field and stewards deemed the incident not to be of the horse's own making.
It was the second time Elusive Prince had featured in such an incident at Happy Valley, but this time the Jockey Club returned the $42.6 million worth of bets the gelding was carrying.
Whyte produced a Valley masterpiece to win on Great Renown, steadying out of the early speed from his awkward number eight barrier to take his place back in the ruck but on the rail, then scythed through his rivals, cutting the corner and finishing strongly down the centre to win by almost three lengths.
'The plan was to take the pressure off the horse in the early stages tonight and Douglas did a great job,' said Gibson, who has ticked up to six wins in his debut season.
'I guess he'll be punished in the ratings for that but I'm hoping there might be one more in him.'
John Size's form at Happy Valley has shown renewed vigour this season and he is on six wins at the track after last night - only four less for the whole season in 2010-11.
Gamekeepers had been heavily-backed as favourite on debut but overraced finishing fifth and was all the better for the experience and a firmer track last night.
'The track was a bit soft first time out and I'm not convinced he was happy in those conditions - the one time he was disappointing in a trial was on a wet track so the firmer footing suited him tonight,' Size said.
'No doubt he came on for the experience too and instead of leading himself he was able to find a nice leader to drop in behind.'
Pocket Rockets had been doing himself no favours by overracing at Sha Tin earlier in the season and it looks like Size has produced the right magic in taking him to the Valley track.
'He's been going too hard in his races but last start here at 1000m he settled okay and finished off and he basically reproduced that effort tonight.'
Caspar Fownes contributed his usual winner, with Manu 'Sam The Tailor' Melwani, who recently broke a 16-year run of outs as an owner with Green Zone, going in again with his other horse, Potential, with Tye Angland on board.
The feature for the night, the St Andrews Challenge Quaich, went to the Tony Cruz-trained Penglai Xianzi with two-pound claimer Matthew Chadwick on board.
With the gelding settling better than usual in front, Chadwick was able to rate Penglai Xianzi and give nothing else a chance in the most impressive win of the five-year-old's six victories. The apprentice racks up his 11th win for the season.
'He gave him a great ride and this horse just loves it out in front,' said Cruz.
'He seems to be really suited by Happy Valley but there won't be many races for him here any more because this will take his rating over 100. We might be in trouble now.'
The only casualty in the stewards' room was Alvin Ng Ka-chun, who copped a three day ban for an adjourned careless riding offence from Sunday's Sha Tin meeting.
