Douglas Whyte's scrapbook has a big blank page awaiting Sunday's $14 million Hong Kong Derby story - and the champion jockey has the horse to fill it. Though Whyte features prominently in the history of Hong Kong racing during the past half-dozen years, he has almost been a spectator in the Classic, steering around largely unfancied runners which caused no surprises.
But that will all change this weekend when Whyte rides Bowman's Crossing in Hong Kong's favourite race. 'I've never been on the right horse before - this year I am,' said Whyte, oozing confidence. 'I'm very worried about David Hayes' mare, Elegant Fashion, but I would rate Bowman's Crossing as one of the better horses I have ever ridden in Hong Kong and an ideal Derby horse.
'In a race, he helps you out enormously. On another horse, you might think, 'Now's the time to press the button', then have to check yourself because you know the horse isn't going to be suited by doing that at that moment. With Bowman's Crossing, you can ride the race you want - whenever you're ready to make a run or take a run, so is he.'
One view of Whyte's failure to find the right horse in a previous Hong Kong Derby is that his goal tends to be the championship each season, and to win that a rider needs to be constantly on the move from horse to horse as they become well handicapped or strike form and take their turn to win. Trainers and owners of the major Classic chances usually demand a keener romance than that.
'I don't know if that is one hundred per cent true,' Whyte said. 'I am a championship kind of man and all my career I've been keen to win them. But when a horse like Bowman's Crossing comes along, I certainly don't mind sticking with him and putting in the time.'
That is something of an understatement. The gelding's trackwork patterns will be tabled in evidence if Whyte's wife lodges any complaint about how much he has been seeing Bowman's Crossing.
