Olivier Doleuze prefers to be in the centre of the action rather than watching from the sidelines, and an unbeaten morning at Tuesday's barrier trials proves the brilliant Frenchman is ready to get back into action.
Doleuze has missed two meetings due to a careless-riding suspension, but demonstrated his readiness for competition with clear-cut wins in each of the three trials over 1,050 metres on the all-weather track at Sha Tin.
Doleuze landed the first on Syllabus for owner Sir John Swaine and trainer David Ferraris, with the versatile home-bred gelding prevailing by a head from the Sean Woods-trained Well Noted (Brett Doyle).
Syllabus was down to trial at Sha Tin the previous Friday but played up (uncharacteristically) in the starting gates, causing his jockey Douglas Whyte's knee to become wrenched and leading to his scratching.
But four days later, it was business as usual for the big gelding and he responded well to Doleuze's hard riding to score well at a distance well short of his optimum.
Well Noted was beaten a big margin at his last start on the all-weather track, but it looks like the gelding has turned the corner on the evidence of this trial. Doyle had him wide without cover for the entire trip and he kept on well in the final 200m.
