Trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing and owner Hui Sai-fun have turned their backs on a barrage of advice and chosen to press on with their Derby aspirations with brilliant sprinter-miler Scintillation.
The Danehill gelding, a product of the 2002 Hong Kong International Sale, scrambled home to win the group one Mercedes-Benz Classic Mile last month and has now been given his chance to complete the double, even though the Derby is decided at 2,000 metres.
Jockey Club executive director of racing, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, who rushed home from attending his seriously ill father in Germany to conduct the Derby selection announcements, skilfully walked the narrow line yesterday afternoon between advocate and critic.
Engelbrecht-Bresges was initially responsible for selecting Scintillation as a yearling, with a view to having him resold as an unraced two-year-old in Hong Kong. But even though the gelding is the top-rated four-year-old, on a mark of 121, the director went on record three weeks ago as recommending he miss the Derby on the grounds he is 'too brilliant'.
However, it is not difficult to make the alternative case, either. 'Scintillation is the winner of eight races and is simply an outstanding horse, a great advertisement for the Hong Kong International Sale,' he said. 'He has won the Mercedes-Benz Classic Mile, leading all the way, and the final quarter of this race will show us whether or not he is a stayer.'
Shum, in his second season of training, will be three-handed in the race, saddling up Special King Prawn and Red Power as well. Special King Prawn is in the same category as Scintillation - classy but doubtful as a stayer - while Red Power is a stayer with a doubtful amount of class.
Shum would have had four in the race but for the shock decision by owner Yeung Kwong-fat to transfer Town of Fionn to freshman trainer Almond Lee Yee-tat on the morning after the Classic Mile. The Snippets gelding had finished fourth in that race and was slightly unlucky not to have finished closer.
