A daring ride featuring a calculated mid-race move on a 57-1 shot helped Matthew Chadwick break out of a mini-slump at Happy Valley on Wednesday night and, with confidence restored, he quickly made it a double in the following race.
Chadwick has become a mainstay in the top five of the jockeys' championship in recent seasons but came into the meeting having notched just seven wins and hadn't ridden a winner in his previous 20 attempts. It didn't seem like Danny Shum Chap-shing's hopelessly out-of-form Little Rainforest would be the horse to end the jockey's unwanted streak, but a change of tactics was brilliantly executed by the rider and brought about the upset win.
Shum said he notified stewards that the four-year-old would be taken back from gate 11, but if at all possible, Chadwick would whip around the field during the middle stages - which is exactly how the race played out.
"The important thing is that we got there easily, in four or five strides and he didn't have to work," Chadwick said of the lightning move in the back straight.
"From there he was able to hang on. Danny came up with the idea to try something different and go back because he was just so over-racing in front and not going on with it, then I said I would go around them if they went slow enough, it worked out perfectly."
Shum added: "The horse had just been so disappointing. I checked him up and down, there was nothing wrong physically, so we thought it was a mental thing - the change was just to trick him into trying."
Chadwick's next win came for a familiar ally in former boss Tony Cruz when Regency Champion led all the way in the Wayfoong Centenary Bowl. "I actually wanted to take a sit on him, but he jumped too well," Chadwick said. "He has done a great job, but he has won four races now and has probably reached his mark."
Tye Angland continued his sensational start to the term with a double, leading on Sight Believer for John Size before a patient, rail-hugging ride got him win number 15 on the Andreas Schutz-trained course specialist Little Dreams.
Sight Believer did a good job to withstand some early pressure, and saved enough to win his second race in eight starts.
"He looked pretty relaxed tonight," Size said. "He drew well enough that we didn't have to push him to get to the front, but when the others came to his outside in the early stages that didn't faze him either."
Angland gave Schutz all of the credit for Little Dreams' win. "This was a great training effort, the horse hasn't been on the big track at all - he gets sore when he works on there, Andreas has just been swimming him," Angland said.
Richard Gibson's Great Charm scored after a picture-perfect ride from Umberto Rispoli, the Italian opening his account for the season. "That was a brilliant ride from an underrated jockey," Gibson said. "I'm amazed he doesn't get more opportunities here, he is one of the most exciting young riders in Europe."
In earlier races, Francis Lui Kin-wai kept his early season momentum going with a double to All Win Boy (Andreas Suborics) and Shanghai Pioneer (Derek Leung Ka-chun), giving him 12 winners so far this season.
Riyadh made it back-to-back wins, giving Olivier Doleuze outright second place in the jockeys' championship, the Frenchman having ridden 20 winners in as many meetings.
