'It wouldn't serve any purpose battling on to the end of the season with a handful of horses'
Hong Kong will lose one of the real gentlemen of the turf later this month after trainer David Oughton's announcement last night that he would finish up on November 29. 'I've been thinking about it for some time and I think the time is right,' Oughton said between races at Happy Valley.
'I don't have the horses I've had in the past, either the numbers or the standard of horses, and I've been here almost 20 years so it feels right to make the break now. It wouldn't serve any purpose battling on to the end of the season with a handful of horses.
'I've loved every minute of it here and been lucky enough to have trained here during the period when the Jockey Club has become established as a world leader in so many ways.'
Oughton, who arrived in the 1987-88 season, has trained 444 winners here and always had the happy knack of keeping a high-class horse or two as his record in the majors shows.
Oughton has won a Hong Kong Derby (Che Sara Sara), three Hong Kong Gold Cups, two Champions And Chater Cups, Champions Mile, two Queen Mother's Cups and most notably, wins on the international stage with Precision's 1992 Hong Kong Cup and Cape Of Good Hope's victories in Australia and England on his way to becoming the 2005 Global Sprint Challenge champion.
