31/01/2010  Shatin  Race 6

At the entrance to the Straight, A Gryder (WIN PRACTITIONER) dropped his whip. Approaching the 100 Metres, YUE LU TREASURE shifted out, resulting in B Prebble, its rider, having to stop riding and straighten his mount. When questioned, D Whyte (SPINNAKER) stated that although the opportunity presented itself to shift to the fence in front of NAPA II passing the winning post on the first occasion, he elected to remain racing in a one-off position as he felt that any early speed due to horses obtaining their positions would come off at some time and that the race would then be slowly run. He said he did not want SPINNAKER to be caught on the fence when the speed came off as he anticipated it would as SPINNAKER is a big striding horse and he felt that it was in the horse’s best interests to remain racing in a one-off position to allow it sufficient galloping room. He said after allowing OLE OLE to cross SPINNAKER near the 1800 Metres, that horse was then steadied to allow ROCKET POWER to shift in. He said when this happened, SPINNAKER commenced to over-race and was awkwardly placed close to the heels of OLE OLE for a considerable distance. He said due to the manner in which SPINNAKER was racing and the fact that it was close to the heels of OLE OLE, he elected to shift the horse out away from the heels of OLE OLE passing the 1400 Metres. He stated although this resulted in SPINNAKER racing wide and without cover for the remainder of the race, he felt that he had little option other than to come away from the heels of OLE OLE at that time of the race and allow the horse to stride forward. SPINNAKER, LHOJONG and YUE LU TREASURE were sent for sampling.