Trainer Peter Ho Leung had four intended runners at Happy Valley tomorrow night but all will be at home in their boxes at Sha Tin following a mix-up at acceptance time yesterday.
Stipendiary steward Kim Kelly said yesterday that hand-written declarations were received via fax at 8.20am, 20 minutes after the 8am deadline, and were rejected by racing stewards in accordance with rule 82(1) of Hong Kong's rules of racing.
Kelly said that the racing registry office contacted Ho's stable at approximately 7.50am when his anticipated declarations for Golden Farm, Aurelian, Favourite Return and Jade Ruyi had not been received.
They were advised that assistant trainer Robert Mak would be making the declarations prior to the 8am deadline.
'However, at eight o'clock, the declarations had still not been received and they were unable to be submitted by email after this time because the computer system is programmed to reject them after the deadline,' Kelly explained.
'Mr Mak then faxed through hand written declarations for this race meeting which were received by the Club at 8.20am.'