YOU can't keep a good jockey down - to keep a great one at bay is simply impossible as both Mick Kinane and Basil Marcus showed on Wednesday with doubles apiece.
Birthday boy Basil Marcus has a tremendous book of rides at Sha Tin tomorrow starting with the opening event where, appropriately enough, he is on trainer Lam Hung-fie's Happy Birthday.
This would be a belated present for the triple defending champion jockey who celebrated his birthday by getting up shortly after 4 am to ride trackwork yesterday.
Happy Birthday's work must have impressed him and in the context of the opposition he faces, it was one of the most significant pieces of the morning.
There's nothing like a Class Six race for finding good bets, after all a winner is a winner is a winner, and the way Happy Birthday went from the barriers at the top of the back straight yesterday suggested he is poised to go very close.
He showed plenty of dash under Marcus and finished his work off very well indeed.