Opinion | Future employment options for King of Class Five

The irrepressible and iridescent Andy Leung Ting-wah was at it again at Happy Valley last night, an unexpected running double of Class Five winners solidifying his position as “King of Class Five” and taking his win total to 399 – the race is now on to get to 400 before his time is up. And then the question is: what will he do when he stops leading in occasional winners at Happy Valley?

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The irrepressible and iridescent Andy Leung Ting-wah. Photo: Kenneth Chan

Published: 9:32pm, 25 Apr 2013Updated: 6:24pm, 26 Apr 2013

The irrepressible and iridescent Andy Leung Ting-wah was at it again at Happy Valley last night, an unexpected running double of Class Five winners solidifying his position as “King of Class Five” and taking his win total to 399 – the race is now on to get to 400 before his time is up. And then the question is: what will he do when he stops leading in occasional winners at Happy Valley?

Barring another change of birth date from Andy, the 65-year-old is due for retirement at the end of this season, and a post-horse racing career awaits. He is striking at a viper-like rate of a win every 4.6 meetings this season and still has more than 20 meetings to get his triple century. And when we say viper, we mean a placid, non-venomous variety.

“King of Class Five” is a bit of a backhanded compliment. Winning any race is nice and it must take some talent to win with a 950-pound squib like Creative Union – an animal so small he looks like he could be stabled in a Mong Kok cage home. Being the king of the lowest class of racing isn’t something any trainer sets out to achieve. The idea is to have good horses that improve over time and reach their best potential.

Twelve of the 28 horses on Andy’s books are in Class Five. A cynic might say the rest are headed there and he just hasn’t had a chance to weave his special brand of magic. There might be something to that though as his six top-rated horses are imports that are yet to race in Hong Kong – he probably won’t have time to get them down into the cellar grade before the end of this term though.