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Spirit jumps Derby queue

Murray Bell

The Derby dream was shattered for at least five owners yesterday when the Hong Kong Jockey Club controversially selected a horse with a lower rating for the $14 million classic on Sunday week. Trainer Ivan Allan's Joyful Spirit was promoted above Ambitious Tycoon, Successive Gains, Supreme Rabbit, Gem Of India and Bullish Luck, who are all rated higher.

Jockey Club chief handicapper Ciaran Kennelly defended the inclusion of Joyful Spirit, who is rated at a humble 88 compared to the Manfred Man Ka-leung-trained Successive Gains (98), who is a Group Three placegetter in Europe.

'Joyful Spirit was picked on the strength of his run when second to Himalaya,' Kennelly explained. 'The reason he is only rated 88 is that he could not [under local handicapping] be penalised more than five points for that race. But he actually ran to a rating of 95 in that race and on that basis we believed he deserved a start.'

In leaving private purchase Successive Gains (US) as second emergency, Kennelly said that in two Hong Kong starts, the four-year-old simply had not run to his 98 rating. This assessment was gained from just four European starts, in which he won a maiden at Gowran Park and finished a short-head second in a Group Three at The Curragh in Ireland.

Kennelly, who has worked on international race selection panels including the Breeders Cup in America, said this year's Derby selection presented one of his most difficult assignments.

'I've never deliberated for as long, or searched my soul as much, or done as much work as we have to determine the final Derby field this year,' Kennelly said after pruning the 32-strong entry to 19. 'But we had a responsibility to come up with an answer, and we have done it.'

The inclusion of Joyful Spirit gives last year's Derby-winning trainer a third string for the classic, having already prepared Golden Years (108) and Self Flit (107) to safe places in the 14-strong line-up.

The final Derby field selection announcement saw nothing happen to threaten the dominance of likely favourites Bowman's Crossing and classic-winning Australian filly Elegant Fashion.

Jockey Club director of racing Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges thanked the owners of Hong Kong, whose private purchases have given this year's renewal a strong international flavour.

'The last few places in the Derby field have been the subject of very intense discussion, as there was not much between quite a few of these horses,' he said. 'But when it was close, we were looking particularly at the ability of these horses to stay [the 2,000 metres].'

Remembering that last year's Derby featured subsequent Hong Kong Mile winner Olympic Express trouncing Hong Kong Cup hero Precision, Kennelly stopped short of declaring this year's field the best ever - a tag that seems to spring from the lips of many an official at this time of year.

'But the average rating of the 14 horses this year is 102, and all but one of those horses has a rating of 94 or above,' Kennelly said. 'Last year there were only eight horses rated 98 and above. So while Olympic Express and Precision may be a hard act to follow, the depth of the race is the most important thing.'

The Derby field will numerically be dominated by a handful of leading stables. David Hayes will be four handed with Elegant Fashion, Equator Kid, Helene Momentum and Beverly Green.

With Allan having three runners, and two each to John Size and Lawrie Fownes, that means four stables will command 11 of the 14 places in what the Jockey Club is promoting as 'the race to a once-in-a-lifetime honour'.

Dye to miss Derby - C13

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