With Douglas Whyte resuming from suspension today, greeted by a full book of rides, punters will get their first taste of something that will soon accept as standard fare with the Durban Demon installed a short-priced favourite for the Jockey Challenge. When the indicative odds were posted yesterday, Whyte was a prohibitive HK$1.65 favourite to win the second Jockey Challenge, with apprentice Thomas Yeung Kai-tong having gained his piece of history with a victory on opening night on Wednesday. Whyte has been serving a three-meeting suspension but is back - fresh, keen and bursting to make an impact of becoming the first jockey to ride 1,000 Hong Kong winners. Jockeys will earn 12 points for a win, six points for second and four for third in each of the races on the programme. No points are earned for any other placings. The jockey with the greatest number of points at the end of the day is the winner. Expect Whyte to be favourite at most meetings, and the history of the phantom challenges prior to last week's launch show him to have won it 21 times from 57 race meetings. However, the South African champ was suspended for 10 of those meetings, which gives him the intimidating strike rate of 21 from 47 (44.7 per cent) when he participated. However, this is by no means a one-jockey race, as the history shows there have been 15 individual jockeys who have won the Jockey Challenge this season during the trial period. The 12th category 'Others' has won once.
