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Kip Deville struggles with the 'opposite' direction

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American miler has a week to put his best foot forward

Outstanding American turf miler Kip Deville had his first gallop on Thursday and, while putting in a satisfactory piece of work, he clearly had some challenges with the clockwise direction of racing.

Kip Deville, ridden by personal valet Michelle Nevin, had a solo stroll wide out on the course proper. The grey moved off from the 1,400 metres and ran 1,200m in 1:17.9, the last 600m in 36.8 seconds.

In the home straight, the quality galloper opened up nicely to clock 23.4 seconds for his final 400m, with the ultimate furlong taking 11.7.

Like all American thoroughbreds, Kip Deville has been racing in the anti-clockwise direction as the tracks stateside offer little variety. The turf tracks are on the inside of the dirt tracks and therefore the radius of the turns is also very tight.

So a sweeping turn like Sha Tin, going the opposite direction, was completely new to Kip Deville and he tried several times to get onto his wrong leg, looking awkward in the process.

Trainer Richard Dutrow has one week to sort out the issue, as Kip Deville must do battle with Hong Kong Horse of the Year Good Ba Ba over 1,600m a week from tomorrow in the HK$16 million Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile.

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