'I went and looked at his videos and thought: my goodness, what have I done here'
Weichong Marwing found ignorance to be pure bliss after he led throughout to win the opening event at Sha Tin yesterday on enigmatic Class Four sprinter Forte.
Marwing, who only came back to Hong Kong for the third tranche of this season, had his first ride on Forte down the straight on June 4 when the chestnut uncharacteristically missed the start and worked home well for fourth to Sunny Power.
'I didn't know the horse or anything about his history, so I was just telling the trainer [Gary Ng Ting-keung] how the horse felt to me,' Marwing explained. 'I told him the horse would be better at 1,200 metres, to put him in a race at that distance and I'd ride him again.
'Honestly, I had no idea of his problems. One of the other jockeys said to me 'do you know this horse doesn't go around turns?' So I went and looked at his videos and thought 'my goodness, what have I done here'?'
As it turned out, Marwing never had a moment to worry. With a little help from Faster Faster (Anthony Delpech), who went up outside the leader at the 800m bend and therefore kept him on the rail, Forte cornered like an old hand.
In the straight, there was only ever going to be one winner and, at a dividend of $110, his name was Forte, scoring by 23/4 lengths and running the exceptional time of 1:09.4 into the bargain.
