After enduring a soap opera by remote control, trainer David Hayes was relieved to finally have Longines Hong Kong Cup aspirant Criterion on his scheduled flight from Australia yesterday.
"He worked beautifully on Saturday morning and everything was perfect, then on Sunday he had a gut ache," said Hayes, a former dual Hong Kong championship-winning trainer.
"The colic was enough of a problem to call the vet and have him treated and luckily it settled down again after a couple of hours. His insides were back to normal [by yesterday] and after consulting closely with Dr Brian Stewart from Racing Victoria, as well as my own vet, we thought the horse was fine to fly."
But the scheduled flight arrived late into Melbourne airport from its previous port, and while Criterion and Hong Kong Sprint contender Buffering waited, an Australian government vet stepped in and refused to allow Criterion to board.
"At the last minute, he said he wouldn't allow a horse to travel so soon after colic," said Hayes, who was trying to work through the situation from his training property at Euroa, 120km north of Melbourne.
After robust discussion, the government vet withdrew his objection and both horses were loaded up before another holdup over whether the plane would be allowed to take off from Melbourne so late due to prospects of breaching some night-flying regulations.
"It was hard work from Euroa," said Hayes. "But it's a relief because plan B was to bring him back here then on to Sydney - eight hours by road - to get another flight on Wednesday, and that would have been more stressful for the horse than a simple flight out of Melbourne."
A later departure would also have interrupted Hayes' plans to have the dual Group One winner at Sha Tin quarantine well before the international meeting on December 14.
"There are two ways you can approach these trips; closer to the race or with more time to get settled and I was keen to get him over there and settled in, so a flight later in the week wasn't going to suit me as well," said Hayes, who has yet to saddle up the Australian Derby winner in a race.
The stallion was transferred from Sydney trainer David Payne to Hayes' yard after running seventh in the Cox Plate and fifth in the Mackinnon Stakes at the Melbourne carnival.
He will be Hayes' first Hong Kong international meeting runner since he returned to training in Australia in 2005, although he has been back twice with Niconero for the spring features, the Champions Mile (2006) and QE II Cup (2009).
"He's a really lovely style of animal and a Derby winner is always a nice one to have in the stable. He's a quality horse and I'll be keen to see how he measures up," said Hayes.
Jockey Douglas Whyte heads to Perth
Douglas Whyte will ride at Perth's Ascot racecourse on Saturday, primarily as the partner for Chris Waller-trained Moriarty in the Group One Kingston Town Classic (1,800m).
Whyte rode Junoob for the champion Sydney trainer in the Caulfield Cup in October and was called on for Moriarty, the pre-post favourite for the A$500,000 (HK$3.29 million) race, to replace the suspended Nash Rawiller.
