The Hong Kong Jockey Club has given the green light to a request from trainer Andre Fabre to have British champion jockey Kieren Fallon ride the crack German mare Borgia in the Breeders' Cup and the Japan Cup. French trainer Fabre and the mare's owner, Dietrich von Boetticher, are convinced that Fallon, who finished second recently on Borgia in a rich Hollywood Park Group One event, was the man guaranteed to get the best out of her in Florida and Tokyo. But Fallon, who chalked up his third double century of winners earlier this week in Britain, will be licensed by the Jockey Club here from November 1 until March 15, 2000, and is not expected to take rides outside the SAR if they clash with local meetings. The fact that both the Breeders' Cup and the Japan Cup are legs of the inaugural World Series Racing Championship weighed heavily in favour of Fallon getting permission. Director of racing Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said yesterday: 'We are committed to supporting the World Series and Fallon has been given permission to be away from Hong Kong for both these races. He will miss two local meetings.' Engelbrecht-Bresges also met trainers yesterday to announce a refinement to the largely successful five-day entry system, which will ultimately make it more media-friendly. Effective from Tuesday, entries will close 30 minutes earlier at 9am and in the event of certain races being re-opened, those entries will close at 11am on the same day. It was accepted that the new system was working well and gave a fair chance to both big and small stables, but Engelbrecht-Bresges undertook to have the reserve system studied further to try to improve the race-planning process for the Club and the trainers. On the issue of work riders, it was generally agreed that there were grounds for improvement. Engelbrecht-Bresges stressed the need to upgrade the quality of work riders and looked forward to improving them through comprehensive training. Meanwhile, former Macau Jockey Club trainer Kenny Man was staring abject disappointment in the face last night with the news that stable star Northern Drake was likely to miss today's BMW Cox Plate, which is being telecast live to Sha Tin and Happy Valley. Northern Drake, who is also entered for the $10 million Hong Kong Cup in December, is suffering from hoof soreness since twisting a plate earlier in the week. The only overseas runner in the field, the Dermot Weld-trained Make No Mistake from Ireland, has made a dramatic recovery from a hoof ailment which had made him doubtful for the 2,040-metre Group One event, which is the fifth leg of the World Series. 'I didn't think the horse had any chance of starting but now I believe we will be able to run him,' said Weld.