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All-weather racing is not for the purist but it is an integral part of the sport in Hong Kong and is unlikely to diminish in importance in the seasons ahead.

 With talk of added meetings next season, the spotlight may focus even more on the Sha Tin dirt surface as there are doubts about the ability of our two grass tracks to take sustained racing.

 We had three all-weather races on a 10-event Sunday programme at Sha Tin and the Jockey Club may now have found the almost perfect way to package dirt racing.

 This, of course, was not the first mixed card - we first had one about six seasons ago - and they were tentatively re-introduced last season. There are a total of 13 this season.

 Somehow, putting three dirt races on a turf card at Sha Tin does not seem such a bind as a full all-weather card. None of the dirt races on Sunday was particularly invigorating but they meshed in with the main programme.

 There are 69 all-weather races this season and if the Jockey Club keeps to that number - or increases it slightly next season - it would do well to consider scrapping totally all-weather cards.

 There is nothing quite so lifeless as the prospect of seven races on the Sha Tin dirt in midweek.

 By juggling their Sha Tin fixtures, the Jockey Club could have three or four dirt races maximally on a Wednesday but still keep the 69 or more overall by slipping more into weekend cards.

 Turnover is unlikely to suffer, trainers who advocate more all-weather racing will be satisfied and for those of us who find it a chore, at least there will always be races on the turf.

Ironically, what had seemed the most mundane of dirt meetings at Sha Tin last Wednesday was not without incident.

 The big talking point was the objection lodged by Alex K. S. Yu on Each Own Way, a head second to Hong Kong Stallion, against the winner, who was ridden by female claimer Willy W. Y. Kan. After a lengthy hearing, the objection was overruled and the result stood with the stewards finding that the result of the race had not been materially affected by the interference. I must differ.

 Each Own Way is a dirt specialist and arguably the strongest finisher on the surface. Yu and Each Own Way were in full flight and keeping an arrow-straight course.

 The pair ended up five or six horses wide, having been taken out at left angles by the action largely instigated by Kan.

 The official verdict was a head and it borders on the fanciful to suggest Each Own Way, through absolutely no fault of his jockey, did not lose more than that margin as a result of the errant path he was forced to pursue.

 It may be suggested that Yu did not stop riding, but if a horse is turned sharply left, then the luckless jockey is no longer riding directly towards the winning post. Kan may well have stood up in the irons in the final couple of strides but the official margin was a head and that was the only margin that mattered.

 Those interested in these matters might wish to remember June 6 last year when Hunting Lad finished a short head second to City Patrol in a 1,400-metre event.

 Apprentice-ridden City Patrol and Hunting Lad, with Basil Marcus up, came together on several occasions over the concluding stages and it was a tight finish. On objection, Hunting Lad won.

 No two incidents are likely to be the same but the degree of interference suffered by Each Own Way was more dramatic and much more marked than that involving Hunting Lad.

 It is slightly more than a quibble to suggest that the stewards did young Kan a service by treating her wayward behaviour on Happy Stallion and her standing up and not riding the horse out in the final strides as one incident which, clearly, it was not. She copped a warning when she might well have been looking at a suspension.

 This is not to be treated as a cause celebre, however, and chief stipendiary steward, Clinton P. Pitts Jnr, appeared on television to give the stewards' views.

 Full marks for that. But they still got it wrong.

It must be sincerely hoped that Indigenous, Hong Kong's highest-rated horse, gets an invitation to the Dubai World Cup because he deserves it.

 But to tangle up a hoped-for invitation for Indigenous with his official Hong Kong rating and that allotted him in the annual International Classifications is to show a lack of understanding.

 An international classification is gained solely through a horse campaigning in Open international competition. Domestic ratings play no part in the deliberations of the international handicappers.

 Some countries, most notably Australia, don't have national ratings, nor does America.

 In international competition, Indigenous had finished fourth in the Vase the previous year and fourth in the April renewal of the QEII Cup but his all-conquering efforts in domestic Group events had seen him rise above stablemate Oriental Express and Johan Cruyff in local ratings.

 Of more interest is how the international handicappers worked out the 114 rating for Oriental Express. He won the QEII Cup and he finished second to Taiki Shuttle in the Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo. He was then comfortably beaten by Midnight Bet in the December renewal of the International Cup.

 Taiki Shuttle, of course, went on to win the Group One Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville.

 But neither the Yasuda Kinen nor the QEII Cup - last April - had international Group status. Clearly, the assessors felt they should account for Oriental Express finishing behind Taiki Shuttle in Tokyo when the Japanese horse did so well in a European Group One event.

 Handicappers will rarely please everyone but it is incorrect, as has been done elsewhere, to attempt to use Hong Kong's domestic ratings in relation to the international classifications.

There is nothing quite so lifeless as the prospect of seven races on the Sha Tin dirt in midweek 



Club can boost mundane meetings by combining dirt and turf