With the birth of a great racetrack rivalry, finger pointing and silly names, 2012 will be hard to top. Here are some of the things that mattered, or didn’t, in the year just gone.
Zac’s Friday night four-timer and the “Whyte pointer rivalry” continues
Athletes talk about being “in the zone” – well, on a rare and hugely successful Friday night meeting at the Valley, Zac Purton entered the “Zac Zone”. This was Michael Jordan firing three-pointers at will during the 1992 NBA Finals, or Tiger Woods scorching through a seven-under round at Augusta. Everything Purton did turned to gold in an unbelievable four-race stretch.
Riding the “C+3” at Happy Valley is a test of balance, tactical nous, patience, poise and focus – and Purton delivered it all in bucketloads. So decisive and confident were Purton’s moves, you were making double takes: “Wait, he is box-seating?” “Where did he draw? Eight? How did he get there?”
Fittingly, Douglas Whyte brought Purton’s winning run to a halt with an assured ride of his own, reminding us who the 12-time defending champion is – and why – and drawing level in the jockeys’ championship, setting up what should be a thrilling next six months.
At the start of the season, old-timers sagely noted the firepower Whyte possesses in the form of the John Size stable. It made him akin to a 1.2 favourite to win No 13.
We’ve seen two 1.2 shots go down this season – and Dougie was on both, so maybe that’s a sign. All empires eventually fall. If everything goes right for Purton – which it appears to be happening – and everything doesn’t go Whyte’s way – and there’s a hint of that – all of a sudden we have a contest. A sub-par season for Size, another big season for Purton’s main supplier Dennis Yip Chor-hong… stranger things have happened.
Pass-through analysis and post-race finger pointing
Pass-through analysis was born out of a clearly brilliant brainstorming session in a Sports Road bunker in 2011, and was probably thought up by the same marketing genius that brought us a man in a horse costume doing Gangnam Style to entertain the masses on Happy Wednesdays.
Pass-through analysis allows punters to see what happens after the winning post. At first, we weren’t sure what we are meant to “analyse”, other than which jockey was in the biggest hurry to get home after the last.
But it was only during the past 12 months that many realised the depths of information this ingenious tool could unearth.
Ok, we’re not actually sure what it was intended for, but as it turns out it’s the best place to capture finger waving and other menacing gestures. Seriously, someone will have an eye out soon if this sort of madness continues. If only we had the jockeys fitted with mics for some tasty verbal taunts too.
First, Douglas was caught giving the finger to Andreas Suborics after a race at Happy Valley in October…
http://racing.hkjc.com/racing/video/play.asp?type=passthrough&date=20121010&no=08&lang=eng
Then Douglas made a point when Glorious Days upset Ambitious Dragon in the Jockey Club Mile...
http://racing.hkjc.com/racing/video/play.asp?type=passthrough&date=20121118&no=08&lang=eng
But the most poignant point was from Purton to Whyte after Ambitious Dragon’s sensational Hong Kong Mile victory...
http://racing.hkjc.com/racing/video/play.asp?type=passthrough&date=20121209&no=07&lang=eng
Andy Leung's immigration department masterpiece
Forget John Size taking Fay Fay from a 52-rater to a Hong Kong Derby winner. Andy Leung Ting-wah’s effort to have his age changed, sorry, corrected, from 65 to 64, was the single best effort by a trainer in 2012.
It was a masterpiece of, as we previously stated, “patience, persistence and powers of persuasion”. I mean, really, have you ever been to immigration and taken a number? It’s a traumatic experience when you realise your number is more than a thousand higher than the customer being served and that you should have brought a sleeping bag because you will be 65 by the time you get to the counter.
As Andy explained to us, he didn’t “change” his age, thus granting him an extra year of training. His age was “corrected” to what it should have always been.
When Andy is replaced, there will be a huge hole to fill. It’s a void that can’t be filled with all of the luminescent jackets and hairspray in the world. It will leave an empty space in our hearts, and on those rare days when one of his horses would have won, who will regale us with tales of Class Two horses dropping into Class Four? And wisdom like: “This is racing, this is life… you choose left, you win, you choose right, you might lose. You marry one girl, maybe you are happy, but if you don’t, you become a millionaire.” Pure Zen. Which brings us to our next category…
Great quotes
When winning with a horse that has been transferred from another stable there seems to be an unwritten code that the victorious trainer isn’t critical of the previous handler, but it’s especially awkward in the cramped confines of the Sha Tin trainers’ stand when things get personal.
Michael Chang Chun-wai certainly didn’t hold back when describing Almond Lee’s former charge Danewin Tiger. Expecting the obligatory “Credit to the former trainer, the horse came to us in good condition”, instead we got this scathing assessment: "He was horrible when he arrived at my stables. He was gone in the coat, he was stiff in the hind legs when he walked and he has a very bad mouth.” Tell us what you really think Michael.
Best Freudian slip in a quote was Danny Shum Chap-shing, when pleading his case to take his sprinter Little Bridge to England for a ridiculously long five weeks prior to the King’s Stand Stakes, and leaving his stable in the care of an assistant.
“I'll be working over there, it's not like I'm going shopping or taking girls to Paris,” he told us. Funny, because no-one had suggested anything about girls or Paris, but we’re glad you weren’t thinking anything like that Danny. But it sure sounds like a good idea, and better than getting up early in chilly Newmarket to ride trackwork.
But a personal favourite was a short and simple one that didn’t require a recorder to remember. When the question “Can I have a quick word in English?” was asked of trainer Me Tsui Yu-sak, he replied “No” with a cheeky smirk and scurried away.
Rulership's QEII win and the emergence of Umberto Rispoli…
Best single performance by a horse, and on the shortlist for best ride and best post-race celebration: Rulership bursts away and makes a Group One field look very average in the Audemars-Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup.
Rispoli laid the platform for the explosive final 200m, booting across from a wide gate to find the coveted box seat in a risky piece of riding from the treacherous 2,000m start. As he crossed the line, Rispoli’s reaction was spontaneous, brilliantly expressive and very cool.
The superbly bred Rulership was somewhat surprisingly retired to stud last week with a record of eight from 20 and leaving an indelible mark with his explosive win.
Rispoli has returned and provided a real spark to the southern hemisphere-heavy jockey corps. He is ambitious, charismatic and looks set to be part of the scene for years to come.
Silly names and celebrities
When we went on a rant against silly names who would have thought the two current horses who were the butt of our jokes - Garlic Boy and Little Cow - would quickly establish themselves as rising stars and early contenders for most improved horse of the season, winning five races from six starts between them so far this term?
The competition for silliest name in town is a hot one, though, way harder than winning races, with a storied history that stretches back to superbly named animals like Handbag Dragon and Horse Win Win. Trainers like Manfred Man Ka-leung and Almond Lee provide even more comical competition with their whacky monikers.
But best name at Sha Tin this year was undoubtedly celebrity-for-hire Kate Winslett’s new beau Ned RocknRoll. A nephew of billionaire Richard Branson, Ned Abel Smith wanted to change his name to simply “Ned”, but followed the lead of many Chinese citizens and instead made a ludicrous name up for himself. Poor punctuation and mashed spelling aside, what better than RocknRoll?
Something must have been in the air on International Day because guests-of-honour Winslett and RocknRoll have since married in a secret ceremony in a barn in upstate New York. We wish them the very best in their latest voyage into marriage (Winlett’s third, RocknRoll’s second) and lots of little RocknRollers in the future.
