'What is now a fact is that we are really getting to like the place very much'
Trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam yesterday pledged his future to Hong Kong following a spate of media reports in Britain that he was unhappy here.
'I can tell you point-blank, I am not thinking of leaving,' the 36-year-old said.
'I have never quit in my life and it does not come into it now.' Chapple-Hyam, who has two winners to his credit since coming here just over two months ago, was besieged by members of the visiting English media here for the International Races.
'I was perfectly open about it, it was hard for me here early on and particularly my wife. But it had to be a bit of a shock to someone who has never been here before and is used to a different way of life.
'But that was early on, definitely not now,' said the Epsom Derby-winning trainer at trackwork yesterday.
Chapple-Hyam spoke about the combination of factors which made him less than satisfied with his lot in the first weeks after he arrived.
Loneliness, the alien nature of the surroundings and a smaller-than-promised string of mainly poor horses added up to disappointment.
His wife Jane, who is Australian, was equally despondent but she, too, has become more adjusted. Speaking to some visiting reporters last Sunday, Chapple-Hyam said: 'If someone had put a ticket in front of her nose a month ago she would have gone home - and if there had been two tickets, I would have gone as well. I couldn't stand the place and I wondered what the hell I was doing here, but since my first winner the horses have started to come in and then your outlook changes.' Not surprisingly, the trainer whose record includes five Classic winners, missed his friends and admitted to being homesick.
He told the London-based Racing Post : 'I miss friends - wherever you go here there are loads of people but I do get lonely. I get pretty homesick.' While various English publications and an international news agency did say that Chapple-Hyam had begun to like Hong Kong much more in recent weeks and had no intention of quitting, the trainer underlined the point strongly yesterday.
'I think a lot of people would find it difficult to adjust immediately to Hong Kong if you are coming from England. But what is now a fact is that we are really getting to like the place very much,' he said.
'Jane has made friends and I am being kept pretty busy. There was a great buzz to Sunday's meeting and you realise that you are part of all this.
'I suppose if Hamdam [al Maktoum] rang up and offered me the whole string, I would have to think about it,' quipped Chapple-Hyam who trialled a couple of new horses yesterday.
'At the end of it all, it is the horses that mean most. I have had some of the top ones here in my care before - Crystal Charm and Oriental Express to name a couple. That's what I am after, a top horse,' he said.
