Happy Lucky Dragon Win | Forget Google Translate: your guide to post-race quotes

Sometimes people don’t mean what they say – or more to the point, they don’t say what they really mean – and things are no different in the politically sensitive and close-knit world of Hong Kong racing.

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Michael Chang was scathing of Solar Dragon after his Class Five win on New Year's Day, but what was he really trying to achieve? Photo: Kenneth Chan

Published: 7:31pm, 16 Jan 2014Updated: 12:15pm, 23 Feb 2016

Sometimes people don’t mean what they say – or more to the point, they don’t say what they really mean – and things are no different in the politically sensitive and close-knit world of Hong Kong racing.

We’ve already covered the coded language of racing participants a few weeks back but there’s another level to what trainers and jockeys say after a race, and it’s often left to the reader to do exactly that – “read” between the lines.

You know how someone saying “I don’t mean to be racist...” or “Not to be rude or anything...” followed by an ominous “but” can alert you to the fact they are about to say something jaw-droppingly racist or rude?

Well, some helpful hints can teach you the telltale signs of what trainers and jockeys are really getting at when they make their post-race monologues.

First of all, some old favourites passed on through the generations. “This horse needs further” usually means “this horse is too slow and I don’t have any other horses to replace it with”, or “This horse is still green” can mean “This horse is just plain dumb and completely unco-ordinated”. But those have been around for centuries.

Refreshing honesty from trainers and jockeys is a real feature of post-race analysis at Happy Valley and Sha Tin, but even when it seems people are being blunt and to the point, are they really? Or is there a sneaky agenda?

When Class Five battler Solar Dragon won on New Year’s Day, trainer Michael Chang Chun-wai gave this scathing and highly amusing assessment of his horse. “Look at the horse he beat, he is a donkey,” Chang said, referring to 23-rated Spectacular Award. “He beat a donkey, and my horse is only slightly better than a donkey. Honestly, he beat an eight-year-old by a short head in an 11-runner race where he got all the favours.”