An enforced wait brought trainer Tony Millard three months late to the winner's circle with promising Brilliant Express after the gelding scored a huge upset at his debut yesterday. Unheralded at 77-1 in a smart Class Three field over the straight 1,000 metres, Brilliant Express and Rodney Quinn (right) surged between runners in the final 200m to win running away in the style of a horse with better things to come and recorded 57.2 seconds on a day when the Class One sprinters took 56.8 seconds.
Brilliant Express is by Cadeaux Genereux, and cost just 16,000 guineas at the Tattersall's October Sale two years ago in England. 'He's a nice horse. He is a miler really so he has done well to win today,' Millard said, and revealed that he had been forced to delay the three-year-old's debut simply due to programming. 'He was ready to run at the end of last season but I just could not get him into a race. I had quite a few like that.'
While Millard said the problem had been disappointing at the time, the delay might not have been any disadvantage for the horse: 'I'm sure that he is better now for having that extra time to develop.
Said Quinn: 'He's not a big horse but he is a very good looking, powerful horse and won well. I literally knew nothing about him until I got to the races. I didn't even know I was riding him until I saw the final fields.' It was Quinn's second Hong Kong winner, both on long-priced runners.
