''WE can only make a prayer for him now,'' trainer Peter Ng Bik-kuen said last night as his protege apprentice jockey Francis Lam Ka-shing lay in Queen Mary Hospital fighting for his life.
So serious is Lam's condition that Ng, to whom he is a second son, was not allowed into the ward.
''We need a miracle for him,'' said Ng, ''and we must keep hoping for one.'' The self-effacing Lam, the 19-year-old son of an Aberdeen chef, has been heralded as the brightest star to emerge from the Beas River apprentice school since the great Tony Cruz burst on to the scene some 20 years ago.
A natural in the saddle, he came to attention almost 12 months ago to the day, when riding at last season's prestigious International Cup and Bowl meeting.
He almost brought off one of the shocks of the season on Ng's Oriental Oilfield.
Friendless in the market at 125-1, not least due to the presence of the then unheard-of Lam on his back, Oriental Oilfield all but lowered the colours of favourite Miss Piggy, who was ridden by none other than Cruz.