The best horse on the day won the Derby. There were hard luck stories behind in yesterday's Sha Tin Classic but the Ivan Allan-trained, Basil Marcus-ridden, Oriental Express scored an emphatic 11/4-length triumph from Victory Star and all credit to the winner and his connections.
Victory Star held the fast-finishing Indigenous by a short head and he was in turn the shortest of short heads in front of fourth-placed Classic Trial winner, Smart Kid. Victory Star had to make his run around the field turning for home, otherwise he might have been closer to Oriental Express. Indigenous was blocked for a run halfway up the straight and might well have run second with a clear run at them while Smart Kid ducked behind Victory Star shortly after turning for home and lost about half a length. 'But I don't think we would have beaten the winner,' reflected Smart Kid's jockey, the in-form South African Piere Strydom.
'The winner won strictly on merit and looks a very good horse.' In Strydom's succinct synopsis lies the story of the 1997 Derby. Oriental Express, an astute $1.6 million purchase by Allan out of Peter Chapple-Hyam's English yard after being first past the post in a Group Two event in France last summer only to lose the race in the stewards' room, looks one of the smartest horses ever to come to race in territory.
The Derby was victory number two from two starts in Hong Kong for Oriental Express who is owned, like Horse of the Year Mr Vitality, by Jockey Club steward and leading businessman Larry Yung Chi-king. It will surely be the first of many major triumphs. His son of Green Desert looks to have the perfect attitude towards his work and his racing and should develop into a meaningful International Cup challenger next December. And with master tactician Allan at the helm, he can be guaranteed to have a perfect preparation.
Allan refused to push Oriental Express for yesterday's focal point of the local racing calendar, explaining: 'There's only one Derby, which is why we ran the risk of running him this afternoon. He's only been here three months and had a gelding operation to get over, too.
'I also resisted putting that testing final gallop into him. I resisted the temptation to turn the screw and instead kept him fresh,' revealed Allan. Marcus was scoring his first Hong Kong Derby winner and plotted a trouble-free passage throughout for his mount.