THERE can be no greater pre-race tip for followers of the Patrick Biancone camp than the way he works his horses on the eve of their intended engagements. The master French mentor is a great believer in giving them a spin through 400 metres 24 hours before their races and time and time again that policy comes up trumps.
It keeps their mind on the job, gives them a gentle exercise yet, at the same time, keeps them fresh. Yesterday, he put two of his most significant runners for this afternoon's Sha Tin meeting through such a workout. They were his exciting griffin, Consistent Win and his admirable grey handicapper, Quick Silver. They breezed together through 400 metres with Consistent Win naturally looking the more classy individual, but with Quick Silver managing to keep tabs, not least because he is a good worker.
Interestingly, the hard-working Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Wayne Harris has the ride on Quick Silver in tomorrow's third event in which Biancone and his championship rival Ivan Allan go head-to-head as Allan also has a big chance of success with the improving Citispeed. Harris rides as Biancone is hoopless. Eric Legrix, Simon Yim and Sherie Kong are all suspended at the same time which is, in its own bizarre way, a considerable feat.
And yesterday Harris, ever the professional, was there alongside Biancone on the rails to watch Quick Silver come through a fluent 400 metres in 23.4 seconds. Eric Saint-Martin partnered Consistent Win through his work and the in-form Frenchman has the ride in this afternoon's opener. Eric Legrix has remained in the territory, despite his five-meeting ban, and full marks to him for resisting the temptation to disappear for a week in the sun. Having him around to ride work is a massive help to Biancone at a crucial time, given that the championship drama is entering its final scene. Neville Begg, like Biancone, will often give his horses a 400-metre pipe-opener the day before racing.
Yesterday, he had his promising griffin Chiu Chow Boy out and about under Damien Oliver. Chiu Chow Boy has definitely progressed since he was backed from 30-1 to 10-1 on his debut when sixth to Professional down the straight 1,000-metre chute. This afternoon's opening race looks too hard for him, but he still has a rough hope of running into the tierce and should be watched very closely in the run with a view to assessing his potential for next season when he could well be worth a very good bet during one of the early meetings. In other work yesterday the Wong Tang-ping trio of Belarus, Flying Cheetah and Hammerhead all impressed in their respective gallops.
Next season Belarus could well fulfil his potential and sprint his way into Class One for his sporting owner, Daniel Zigal. Yesterday he went better than Cutlass Perfection who, himself, went with definite hope when working in blinkers. Flying Cheetah strode out well to win his gallop with Mount Sapphire while Hammerhead looked on very good terms with himself as jockey of the moment, Darryll Holland, took him through a steady 1,200 metres.
