NIGEL Tiley is clearly intent on ending his riding career on a high note and Filipachi (7-2 favourite) started what could be a glorious send-off for the naturalised New Zealander in the final event at Sha Tin yesterday.
Tiley revealed plans last week to quit the saddle for a training career in Auckland but he showed with a faultless ride on Filipachi that he will be missed.
Filipachi, untested over the 2,200-metre trip and carrying 140 pounds, won by an impressive three and three-quarter lengths from battling A Better World (8-1) who came again to nudge out the John Moore-trained Should Run For Me (4-1).
While the winning margin may have made Tiley's task look easy, that was not necessarily the case.
Filipachi was carrying a lot of weight but Tiley made the job easy for the son of Caerleon by refusing to leave the fence. He stayed glued to the rail until he came off to make his ultimate challenge with the result that the five-year-old had to do the minimum of work until the crunch came.
''He deserved it because I think he has been a bit of an unlucky horse. He has been running into the frame but always finding one a bit too good.
