04/12/2016  Shatin  Race 10

At declaration time, K C Leung was declared as the rider of both CHARITY JOY and TRIUMPHANT JEWEL. It was established that K C Leung had a firm commitment to ride CHARITY JOY. As such, the Stewards permitted D Lane to be substituted as the rider of TRIUMPHANT JEWEL. For this declaration error, Trainer D Cruz was fined $2,000. From a wide barrier, ARCHIPPUS was steadied in the early stages and shifted across behind runners in the early stages. MALMSTEEN was crowded for room on jumping between MR GENUINE and TEAM FORTUNE which shifted in. MR GENUINE was unable to obtain clear running until passing the 200 Metres. Throughout the race, WAH MAY FRIEND and DRAGON GENERAL travelled wide and without cover. When questioned regarding the disappointing performance of MALMSTEEN, S Clipperton stated that the horse, which was having its first race start on the All Weather surface today, was never comfortable and he had to ride it aggressively for a considerable distance in the early stages in an endeavour to obtain a forward position. He said MALMSTEEN did not travel well at any stage of the race and appeared to him not to be suited by the pressure of the race with other runners being similarly ridden to obtain forward positions. He said having this in mind, he recommended to connections that they give consideration to returning the horse to a turf race and perhaps stepping it up in distance to allow MALMSTEEN the opportunity to obtain a forward position without having to be hard pressed to do so. A veterinary inspection of MALMSTEEN immediately following the race did not show any significant findings. When questioned, D Whyte stated that it had been intended for TEAM FORTUNE to be ridden behind the speed if possible. He said however he had to ride his mount in the early stages to prevent being crossed by FLYING TOURBILLON and after doing this he allowed TEAM FORTUNE to cross MALMSTEEN to its inside as that horse was being hard ridden and did not appear to be showing the same early speed as TEAM FORTUNE. A veterinary inspection of HAPPY METEOR immediately following the race did not show any significant findings. ARCHIPPUS and TEAM FORTUNE were sent for sampling.