If Endowing wasn't a late scratching before a Happy Valley Class Two last month, John Size's stayer of the future may have been contesting the Group One Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup. But Size doesn't deal in hypotheticals and was simply satisfied that his four-year-old had got his Class Two win and coped with the double-figure ratings rise he copped for running second in the Group One BMW Hong Kong Derby.
Endowing had scraped into the Derby as the lowest-rated runner on 82 but came away with a 92-rating and carrying the usual doubts about age-restricted form.
"Racing against your own age can be a bit misleading sometimes, especially if you don't win," Size said. "So I'm quite pleased he could go to the races and win after getting 10 points. He got plus-10 for not winning, so you don't really know if it is a real figure until you go back to the races. Today he proved that figure was actually a reality.
"He will now be 15 or 16 points ahead of where he was when he got into the Derby and he has established himself as a nice little staying horse for next season. He is four and working his way out of Class Two, so he is a handy little horse to have.
"He had been very healthy after the Derby but he needed that run at Happy Valley, so when he missed it he has had a couple of trials - after the Derby he did a little bit too well."
It was swollen eye that forced Endowing out of the Valley Class Two, a race that Queen Mother Memorial Cup and Champions & Chater Cup runner-up Willie Cazals won. And even though Size wouldn't delve into "what ifs?", jockey Douglas Whyte did.
"The further the better - I wish he had been in the Queen Mother Memorial Cup, he would have run a big race," he said. "The horse seems to be enjoying racing. He is a lot more tractable now and it is nice to see him improve. He showed a lot of courage. He had to get himself out of a wedge at the top of the straight and Poetic Justice dropped me two lengths, I had to wait for him to go before I could get out and go after him. All in all it was a dour effort."
