Th empire struck back at Sha Tin as reigning champion jockey Douglas Whyte flexed his muscles to the tune of his first four-timer in just over a year and sliced deep into Brett Prebble's championship lead again. Seeking his 10th successive win, Whyte has been an uncharacteristically slow starter to the term, but is now a clear second and at least within sight of Prebble, who leads the way by 11 and landed just the solitary win on Happy Seven yesterday. Whyte arrived with El Morro and Ejimeric Te Specso in the first half of the card and punters who took the short odds about him to win the day's honours in the Jockey Challenge had little to worry about by the time Sweet Sanette won the seventh. With Super Satin's victory in the ninth, the Jockey Club declared correct weight on the Durban Demon's dominance and paid out with a race to go. The John Size-trained debutant Ejimeric Te Specso wound up a generous price after a spirited betting contest across several runners before making a big impression for an inexperienced horse by doing it the hard way from gate 13 to lead all the way over 1,400m. 'When I trialled him, he was a bit new and raw, and then Willie Pike trialled him and he came out running to win the trial but I didn't expect I'd be able to lead today with Matsukaze inside us,' Whyte (pictured) said. 'He flew out, and when I got to the front the thing that gave him a breather in the race was he was there looking at everything in front of him and pricked his ears. I think if I had tried to sit behind on him he might have been a bit keen and lost the race because of it. 'But I was able to sit up on him turning into the straight and that won him the race. He did it the tough way and he looks a lovely horse for the future.' Whyte's other win for Gary Ng Ting-keung aboard Sweet Sanette was a small slice of history as the South African filly became the first female to win a race here since Regal Thrills in September 2006, and only the second since the retirement of Elegant Fashion five years ago. 'At one stage she looked a doubtful starter,' explained Whyte. 'She lost a plate in the parade and they had trouble getting one on her again. Then she got to the start and another runner had to be replated and all this time she was sweating and eager to get on with things. 'I tagged across to the outside looking for company rather than the outside rail but when I pushed the button she really let down, quicker than I expected and it was nearly the undoing of her with the big weight because she was running out of steam in the last 100m and had to tough it out. She's not top class but she's going to hold her own and I think if Gary takes her to Happy Valley, she'd go around there on a skateboard.' Ng said the filly's anxious temperament didn't surprise him as it was in keeping with fillies generally. 'Even this morning, she realised that she was going to be racing today and started to become nervous and the reshoeing didn't help. Normally when a nervous horse has to go through all that before a race they don't produce their form,' he said. 'So to win proved that she certainly has the potential to win in Class Two next time. We'll look at the programme, but Happy Valley does look a possible option with her.' Super Demon Douglas Whyte has resgistered 32 winners from 258 outings and is this many winners behind Brett Prebble in the Jockeys' standings: 11
