Whyte banks on Tiber to complete collection

On Derby day last year, Douglas Whyte fairly whistled his way into the Sha Tin jockeys' room with almost master-of-the-universe confidence. A few hours and 10 races later, notwithstanding a minor win on the stayer Xlerate, the Durban Demon was instead humming a few bars of John Denver's Some days are diamonds, some days are stones.

Stones? This day was a rock of the boulder variety, with Whyte's highly fancied Derby mount Bowman's Crossing failing to fire a shot in the big race, before pulling up with a heart irregularity. He wasn't the only one.

'I would describe that day as one of the biggest let-downs of my career,' Whyte reflected yesterday. 'David [Oughton] and I were so bullish about his chances going into the race, he'd been absolutely flying. And then he runs 10th to Elegant Fashion in the Derby and pulls up with a heart problem.

'But that's the racing industry for you. We went into the race feeling as high as the sky but after the race ... let's just say the feeling was pretty dark.'

The nightmare may almost be over as the countdown to Sunday's $14 million Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby continues in flawless fashion for Whyte's 2004 attempt on board the John Moore-trained Tiber. The multiple volumes that represent the Douglas Whyte career scrapbook have a big blank page just waiting to be filled, because the man who will soon be crowned Hong Kong's champion jockey for a fourth time is yet to win the classic.

'Tiber is a decent enough chance in the race,' Whyte said. 'He's got one [favourite Lucky Owners] that looks very hard to beat but he is beatable - we proved that last start and Tiber is one of the few horses to have beaten him.'

Whyte has missed just one gallop on Tiber, on February 21, but has been on board the Irish-bred galloper in every major piece of work before and since. And he'll be the pilot again this morning, when Moore gives the four-year-old his final piece of work on the main grass track at Sha Tin.