Darren Flindell was a fixture of Hong Kong racing’s English-language broadcast team as a presenter and commentator for 16 years before he returned to the city of his birth in 2015 to call Sydney’s races.

In this week’s Tongue Tie Off, a Q&A series with racing personalities with connections to Hong Kong, Flindell relives his favourite and least favourite commentaries, nominates the Sydney-based riders and trainers he’d try to lure to the city if he was a Jockey Club executive and explains why some of his recent calls reference succulent Chinese meals.

Who was the horse that got you into racing, and why?

It was TJ Smith’s Bounding Away, the Golden Slipper winner of 1986. I was 17, I’d followed her through all the lead-up races, and I’d pretty much decided she was a good thing in the Slipper. I went to Rosehill Gardens with my dad – the first time he’d gone to the races with me – and unloaded all the money I’d saved from doing little casual jobs. I was in awe of Tommy Smith and Bounding Away. Her lead-up form and spectacular Slipper win made me think it was easy to make money from punting on racing.

Why did you swap Australia for Hong Kong in 1999?

I’d done stints at various racing newspapers, the greyhounds, the trots and Radio 2KY in Sydney before I joined Sky Channel full time as both a caller and a presenter, but more so as a presenter. What led to the change was I felt I was becoming pigeonholed as a presenter. I yearned to be calling more races.

Richard Hoiles announced his departure from Hong Kong, which meant the Jockey Club started looking for someone to be its number two caller behind David Raphael. The late Wayne Wilson was the man who put forward my name to the Jockey Club bosses.

In making that decision, I received a lot of support from my managers at Sky Channel. I was fairly well entrenched there, and I’d never really been overseas before. I was quite nervous about making the move, but they assured me they’d keep my job in Sydney open in case things in Hong Kong didn’t work out.

What was the favourite of your calls in Hong Kong?

The 2014 Derby. Designs On Rome looping the field. Able Friend bursting through. Dibayani running down the outside. I particularly enjoyed that race, and it will probably go down as one of my best calls.

Able Friend was a horse I loved calling. He got better and better out of the Derby. On my last day in Hong Kong – Derby Day in 2015 – I called him to his slashing Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup win, and my outline was, “I’m going to miss calling you, buddy”.

What was your least favourite call in Hong Kong?

The 2014 Vase. Prince Khalid Abdullah had two runners – the winner, Flintshire, and the seventh-placed finisher, Snow Sky – and they carried almost identical colours. Flintshire’s rider, Maxime Guyon, wore pink epaulettes, and Snow Sky’s rider, Ryan Moore, wore a pink sash, but they were the only differences. I had great difficulty separating them in the home straight, and in the live call, I mixed them up across the line. I had to go back and call the race again for the sake of the archives. It was understandable why I’d made the mistake, but I was still furious with myself. It was a lowlight.

You’re known for loving a punt. What was your best bet and worst beat during your time in Hong Kong?

My best result was a Six Up. I remember I bought a second-hand Porsche – not a cheap one – for cash with my winnings. Unfortunately, my worst result was a Six Up as well. After finding several good-priced winners, I held the only live ticket going into the last leg. I had it going for millions of dollars, only to get knocked off on the wire in a very close finish. I was on the runner-up, Richard Gibson’s Mi Savvy, and John Moore trained the winner, Charles The Great. I was presenting the television coverage with Jenny Chapman that night. I knew Charles The Great had won. John ran over to me and asked, ‘Daz, did we get there?’ My reply was an animated one. I was distraught. My winnings would have paid off the mortgage on the place I’d bought in Kennedy Town.

If you were a Jockey Club executive seeking to lure riders and trainers from Australia to Hong Kong, who would be on your shortlist of targets?

Hong Kong has secured the most appropriate trainer, Mark Newnham. If there were others to follow in Mark’s footsteps, I’d say Joe Pride and Bjorn Baker. Joe spent his early days with John Size – they are similar in many ways. Joe, who won The Everest at Randwick on Saturday with Think About It, would be a good fit for Hong Kong. He’s particularly good with older horses – he can keep them going. And if Bjorn, Australia’s favourite New Zealander, got to Hong Kong, he’d give Caspar Fownes a good run for his money in the Cheering Home A Winner Stakes.

Apprentices Zac Lloyd, Dylan Gibbons and Tyler Schiller are the future of Sydney’s riding ranks. Not yet – maybe in two or three years from now – I’d be looking at one or more of the trio because I’ve no doubt these young guys will make it to the top.

Finally, why have you referenced succulent Chinese meals in some of your recent calls?

Democracy Manifest – he’s become a cult figure. His runs revived an old video clip of a hilarious arrest outside a Chinese restaurant in Brisbane. Once I realised what his name meant, and I got the opportunity to call his races following his switch from Kody Nestor to Chris Waller, I had a lot of fun with it, using a lot of expressions from the video – ‘you know your judo well’, ‘he’s got him in a headlock’ and ‘a succulent Chinese meal’. He’s turned out to be a really good horse. He was very unlucky not to win the Epsom Handicap last month.