Doleuze turns on turbo before Swiss treatment
Frenchman wins feature race before heading for Europe to see specialist on shoulder injury
Jockey Olivier Doleuze threw Turbo Jewellery over the line to win the night's feature race at Happy Valley on Wednesday night then took his leave to catch a plane with his immediate riding career in a holding pattern.
Doleuze was on a flight to Switzerland to see an exclusive specialist about a shoulder injury, and will miss the next two meetings. However, stewards had taken the unusual decision to allow Doleuze to ride most of last night, with the jockey standing down only from his ride in the final race due to time constraints.
I'm happy I won the race, but I'm sad that I have to stop riding for the next two meetings
There were no signs of soreness as John Size-trained Turbo Jewellery made his return to the winner's list with a narrow Hong Kong Country Club Challenge Cup win but Doleuze said the issues with his right shoulder, injured in a fall last season, had been building since September.
"I'm happy I won the race, but I'm sad that I have to stop riding for the next two meetings," Doleuze said as he rushed to the airport. "It has been bothering me since the start of the season, but I held off doing something about it before Rich Tapestry went to America. And we got a win there and that's great, but now I have to think about me."
Doleuze has had a consultation via Skype with the specialist in Switzerland, but needs to have scans to determine whether he will require surgery, which would mean a longer period of absence.
"I will know by Monday. The most likely is some treatment, some rest and it will be OK, but the worst case scenario would be arthroscopic surgery," he said.
"I can ride with it how it is but the problem is getting worse, it's starting to be painful and I can't ride the way I want to - you can't do things here less than 100 per cent. It's too competitive and it isn't fair to the people who support me."
It was a night of doubles on the track, with trainer Manfred Man Ka-leung bookending the programme, Gary Ng Ting- keung and Danny Shum Chap-shing landed doubles and jockeys Neil Callan and Gerald Mosse continued their brilliant form with a pair each.
"It's great to have some momentum going at this time of year, with the big races ahead of us," said Callan.
Callan gave Man-trained Flying In his first trip to the winner's circle in almost five years when he took the 2,200m Class Five then the jockey followed up 30 minutes later on a maiden galloper, Baltic Warrior, for Shum.
"His best form in Australia was in blinkers, so I put them on him in a trial and he seemed go OK and left them on for tonight," Shum said. "He's got a turn of foot, but isn't there yet mentally and has some improvement in him."
Ng's double came courtesy of gate one for both St Yazin (Mosse) and Loving Star (Eddy Lai Wai-ming), doubling his tally for the season.
"Loving Star has many problems, but his last run showed he was coming back and everything worked perfectly for him," Ng said. "St Yazin loves the fast pace of the 1,000m races here at Happy Valley and he has been very consistent in these races. Now he will be back up to Class Three, but he was competitive there last season - even though he dropped to Class Four to win, I'm thinking he will handle it."
While Doleuze was bidding the scene farewell, it was welcome back after suspension for 13-times champion jockey Douglas Whyte, and he wasted no time getting back on the scoresheet when Charity Joy took out the seventh race for Shum.
