DISAPPOINTMENT FOR FANS AS INDIGENOUS FAILS TO FOLLOW PLOT
It was the race that Hong Kong had been eagerly awaiting but it did not go according to script, writes Robin Parke.
Indeed, the $7 million Hong Kong Vase ended up a flop as far as local racegoers and fervent fans of Indigenous were concerned.
The race was won by the German-owned and French-trained Borgia, ridden by Oliver Peslier. Indigenous (4-1), second in the Japan Cup two weeks ago, did his best to get a blow in and finished fourth, having struck some interference.
Trainer Ivan Allan said: 'We always knew it could be tough after the great run in Japan but I don't think we lost anything in this defeat.
'Indigenous probably could have run third but we did not object and I am not at all unhappy with the way he ran. This was a very good standard and Indigenous has had a hard couple of weeks. He will run overseas again, that has always been the plan. The alternatives are the Singapore International in April and the World Cup in Dubai.' Melbourne Cup winner Rogan Josh, 3-1 favourite for the 2,400-metre event, failed to flatter in a race where an upset was a certainty within a couple of hundred metres of the start. The sight of the Pat Eddery-ridden Silver Patriarch (9-2) running fifth told the tale. The pace was little more than a crawl, with Indigenous parked in third spot.
Sea Wave (7-1), the mount of Frankie Dettori, was in the van with Rogan Josh back in sixth and seventh place on the rails.
Whyte said: 'I knew before the race and said so, that the crucial part would be about 400 metres out.
'Of course, a better pace would have suited me and most of this field. That was no help but when it came to the crunch, the zip just wasn't there. I was squeezed for room and without that I would have finished third, but this was not a race we were going to win.' Borgia, a game mare running her last race, poked through along the inside in the straight as Peslier went to work and won by a head from the French-trained bottomweight, Bimbola (50-1).
