Geoff Lane is now only one winner from meeting the Jockey Club's stringent performance criteria for trainers. Except the victory will be only a moral one because Lane, 65, takes compulsory retirement at the end of the season after being in Hong Kong for the entire span of professional racing - 1971-2004.
Yesterday, having welcomed $36.50 favourite Pretty Trio (Douglas Whyte) back to scale after the final race, Lane revealed he would be starting his new career in Macau virtually straight away.
'I could have started at the beginning of the new season in Macau, in September,' he explained. 'But the club is prepared to license me straight away, after the end of the Hong Kong season, so I'll be open for business in Macau from July 1.'
Of the many winners Lane has been associated with, few have given as much heartache as Pretty Trio, who's already had to overcome knee and tendon injuries.
'He galloped for Douglas last Saturday and did just a bit more than I wanted,' Lane said. 'Anyway, he came back after the work and had some filling in the tendon on his good leg.
'All credit to my staff. They have worked very hard on the horse all week to make sure he got to the post.'
An impartial observer of Douglas Whyte's first Hong Kong five-timer was Wayne Hawkes, who heads up the Melbourne racing stable of Australia's biggest racehorse owner, Bob Ingham.
