The Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby Trial last Sunday turned out to be a fascinating race as Unique Jewellery snatched victory from Kings Falcon at the wire. I'm sure you'll agree, though, that both riders involved – Olivier Doleuze and Darren Beadman – gave superb performances in the saddle. I hope the Derby itself next month will prove equally exciting.
There are actually a lot of factors that can affect the winning chance of each runner in a race. Unique Jewellery serves as a great example of this. As his trainer John Size commented after Sunday's race, the horse was drawn wide and failed to settle well in his last defeat in the Hong Kong Classic Mile. But he enjoyed better luck with his kind draw this time, which gave him a vital edge and Doleuze was able to relax the horse which gave him more flexibility and options in the early stages of the race.
Doleuze is a very experienced jockey who has tremendous hands like most French jockeys but our four new apprentices show a lot of talent too. Derek Leung, Keith Yeung, Matthew Chadwick and Ben So are making their debut this season, and it's nice to see these four graduates from the Club's Racing Trainee Programme have all performed impressively so far. With their 10-pound weight allowance and the great support given by their mentors, trainers and owners, they have already managed to bag 25 winners between them in just a short period.
To my observation, I think all the four young riders possess nice basic riding skills and posture on the saddle. It seems that these lads also usually show good pace judgment in their races, especially when their runners are placed in the front. But I think they are still rather green at this stage and need to avoid committing careless mistakes, so as to avoid getting suspended and sacrificing more riding opportunities. Having said that, I think making mistakes and learning from them is part of personal development, and I'm confident that if they have more riding experience and can further shape up their riding skills and techniques, they will surely make good progress in the seasons to come.
There's also some great news for Matthew as we have permitted him to start riding at Happy Valley from next Wednesday onwards. Before that, however, there's one more Happy Valley meeting to go this evening. There will be eight races on the card and I’ll be paying particular attention to the performances of two runners who will be starting their respective races from Gate 1 tonight – Plan B in the Indian Recreation Club Challenge Club Handicap, and Victory Conqueror in the d'Aguilar Peak Handicap.
Despite being drawn Gate 12 in his last start in Happy Valley, Plan B has still overcome this disadvantageous factor and winning the race by half a length. Featuring in the same distance and partnered by Johan Victoire tonight, the horse enjoy a great draw and let's see if he can continue his decent form in the race.
Currently ranking 10th in the CSL Million Challenge leader board, a win tonight will see Victory Conqueror surpassing other contestants and reaching the top of the Million Challenge list. So let's see if the kind draw can help him to achieve this target tonight.
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