Trainer John Moore was at the forefront of Douglas Whyte's admirers yesterday after a suggestion from the champion rider played a role in getting rejuvenated stayer Luckswell back into the winner's circle.
'You've got to hand it to Dougie. Everyone can see he's riding absolutely brilliantly, but where he's so good is in working with you on a horse,' Moore said. 'He's like a Formula One motor racing driver - always helping to fine tune things. He knew what Luckswell needed.'
Whyte suggested the trainer remove the blinkers from Luckswell, who had not won since October of 2002 though he had scored a moral victory when successful in a protest on the dirt recently.
'Douglas said if we left the blinkers on, Luckswell would just do a bit too much in the run and we wouldn't see any turn of foot from him,' Moore said. 'Without them today, he was always travelling well.'
Whyte said Luckswell, who finished fourth in the Hong Kong Derby behind Olympic Express in 2002, was a very genuine horse and not in need of blinkers.
'When I rode him over 2,000 metres a couple of starts ago, I wouldn't say he pulled, but he didn't relax either and it was the blinkers,' the jockey said. 'I said to John I wasn't worried about him carrying the big weight today at 2,200 metres provided he was relaxed.
