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SCMP Reporter

HELENE Express dug deep to take yesterday's $2.1 million Sha Tin Futurity and complete a most welcome double for besieged leading jockey Robbie Fradd.

 The David Hayes-trained four-year-old showed unusual tenacity to keep the exciting Electronic Unicorn at bay. He prevailed by a head with outsider Shaxi Fortune keeping on well for third, just a half-length behind.

 Fradd had earlier scored on Cheers Up for trainer Tony Millard in the fourth and is now back to nine in front of arch-rival Douglas Whyte in their private duel for riding supremacy.

 Fradd had been almost 20 winners clear some six weeks ago but Whyte has laid siege to him over the intervening meetings.

 A delighted Fradd said after racing: 'I think the expression is 'that's just what the doctor ordered'.

 'Things have being going all right since I came back from suspension but I've only really been chipping away with a winner here and a winner there. A double puts the bounce back into my step, kind of gets the momentum going again.'  Helene Express won his first start in Hong Kong, having arrived here with a Group Two success to his name from Australia and has hardly run a bad race for Hayes.

 'He's been there or thereabouts all season,' commented his mentor. 'Today's mile or maybe 1,800 metres is probably his best trip but I will let him take his chance in the Champions and Chater Cup.

 'I know he's a bit of a risk at the 2,400 metres but it could be one of those falsely run staying events so you never know.

 'He's probably not in the top three in Hong Kong but there wouldn't be too many more than half a dozen who are better than him.'  Hayes then added: 'What was particularly pleasing today is that he really knuckled down and fought and fought. He's run well all season but he's never quite shown that amount of fight.'  Hayes will ask Fradd if he'd like to keep the ride in the Aetna Champions and Chater Cup next Sunday as stable jockey Basil Marcus has been released to ride staying champion Indigenous.

 Marcus yesterday elected to ride stablemate Kenwood Melody in preference to Helene Express but his mount couldn't pick up after having every chance halfway up the home straight.

 Hayes thought he was probably ridden too close to the pace but Marcus felt he had to do that because the pace was so slow.

 The slow pace and the sprint to the line made Electronic Unicorn's run a huge effort as he came from nearly last under the in-form Weichong Mawing.

 'The tempo beat us,' he said. 'I've no doubt at all that if this horse was in South Africa he would be absolutely one of our best, right up there at the top.'  Whyte was on the mark with the David Oughton-trained Just Perfect in the fifth, a dirt sprint.

 Oughton had endured a 79-runner losing streak until Whyte scored on his Espresso last weekend and now he's gone bang-bang in two meetings, as so often happens.

 'It's amazing how that happens, isn't it,' he reflected. 'But they had been running well without quite getting their heads in front.'  In the training championship, Tony Cruz wiped out the one John Moore pulled back via a big-odds Happy Valley double on Wednesday when his improving Natural Winner took the seventh, an 1,800-metre dirt contest.

 'I'm letting the horses do the talking for a while. I'm all talked out about the championship for the time being,' Cruz said.

 He's now on 48 winners and back to six in front. He's going to take some catching with just 11 meetings left.

Lawrence Wadey 



'[These victories] put the bounce back into my step, kind of get the momentum going again'