04/05/2014  Shatin  Race 8

As the start was effected, KHAYA began very awkwardly, reared and made heavy contact with the inside barrier gate. This resulted in KHAYA losing ground. Then after travelling a short distance, KHAYA was left racing without cover and was allowed to stride forward to race outside the lead passing the winning post on the first occasion BUBBLE CHIC knuckled over at the start. LIBERATOR began awkwardly, shifted out and made contact with the hindquarters of SUNNY YING which became unbalanced. Approaching the 900 Metres, VANILLA shifted out momentarily when awkwardly placed close to the heels of KHAYA. WAYFOONG EXPRESS, which was following VANILLA, was steadied away from the heels of that horse in consequence after being bumped by LIBERATOR which shifted out momentarily. When questioned regarding the performance of TRAVEL BRAND, Z Purton stated that the circumstances of today's race were in contrast to those at its last start when successful. He said on that occasion TRAVEL BRAND had enjoyed coming off a good pace and had relaxed well throughout the race. He said today's race was run at a very slow tempo and TRAVEL BRAND would not relax and over-raced for the majority of the event. He said because of the manner in which TRAVEL BRAND raced throughout, the horse was then unable to quicken when the tempo of the race increased. He added whilst TRAVEL BRAND was somewhat disappointing in the fact that it gave ground over the latter stages of the race, nonetheless he felt that there were valid excuses for the horse's performance. A veterinary inspection of TRAVEL BRAND immediately following the race did not show any significant findings, however, the horse was unable to be scoped due to being fractious. A veterinary inspection of ASHKIYR immediately following the race did not show any significant findings. KHAYA, BUBBLE CHIC and SUNNY YING were sent for sampling.