AN elated Danny Lee was smiling in the streaming rain as he left Happy Valley last night having won his appeal against a nine-day ban handed down for his riding of Super Win Boo last month. Lee, who had been hoping to at least get the ban reduced, convinced the three-man panel of Stewards that he had not breached Rule 131 (ii) with his ride on the horse on March 31. Super Win Boo finished last in a field of seven in a 1,030-metre event won in course record time by Diamond Treasure. Lee said: ''The horse was racing without blinkers and a tongue tie for the first time and hung. It was a difficult ride for me.'' The two-hour meeting at the Sports Road headquarters of the Jockey Club heard Lee and viewed the patrol films of the race. The severity of the original suspension had come as a surprise in that Super Win Boo's equitrack form is nil and the manner in which the race was won by Diamond Treasure left most runners in the race with little chance. The suspension was easily the stiffest handed down this season and the decision to set it aside is significant. In the 22-year history of professional racing here, very few appeals against a sentence of such severity have completely succeeded. There are numerous cases of sentences being reduced and, in the case of Wendyll Woods and Tung Feng last season, a charge altered and then the sentence reduced. The Stewards who heard the appeal and upheld it were John Swaine, Mike Thornhill and Alan Li Fook-sum. Meanwhile, in a stable switch of importance yesterday last-start winner Sun Crest, an expensive private purchase griffin, left the stable of Patrick Biancone. Sun Crest won the Po Leung Kuk Challenge Cup at Happy Valley in late January at 9-4 and it was a popular success. Since then, the horse has had a training setback but the decision of well-known owner George Tong Kwo-kiun to switch to Ivan Allan was a surprise. Tong raced the excellent Shady Heights in England and also had an interest in the European champion sprinter, Never So Bold. And Eddie Lo Kwok-chow has lost Fellowship, who put in a rather disappointing run at his last start, to Peter Ng Bik-kuen. Lo has recently lost Tango Knight and Tango Prince and has not applied to retain a jockey next season. He currently retains Brent Thomson.
