12/10/2019  Shatin  Race 9

When parading prior to the race, RED DESERT became fractious, resulting in M F Poon being dislodged without incident. As the start was effected, REFINED TREASURE lifted its front feet off the ground and consequently was slow to begin. RED DESERT began awkwardly and bumped the inside of its gate on jumping. Shortly after the start, STORM SIGNAL (C Y Ho) became badly unbalanced after being bumped by VOYAGE WARRIOR which was taken out by MULTIMILLION (Apprentice K H Chan) which, after shifting out at the start, then continued to shift out. In this incident, C Y Ho became unbalanced and SEVEN HEAVENS, which was racing outside STORM SIGNAL, was also hampered. Apprentice Chan was severely reprimanded and advised that whilst MULTIMILLION did shift out at the start, nonetheless he should have made a greater effort to correct his mount than he did on this occasion. When questioned, C Schofield stated that it was intended for THANKS FOREVER to be ridden in a forward position from barrier 12 and it was anticipated that THANKS FOREVER would show sufficient speed to race behind the leaders. He said THANKS FOREVER began well, however, despite being ridden along in the early stages did not show sufficient speed to be in as prominent a position as expected. He said he had to ride his mount along in the early stages to maintain its position which included slapping the horse down the shoulder with the whip on a number of occasions after the 600 Metres. He said THANKS FOREVER did not stretch out in the early and middle stages and because of this raced further back in the field than had been intended. He added THANKS FOREVER was then held up for clear running after the 300 Metres and he had to wait until SAUL’S SPECIAL weakened to his inside before he was able to shift THANKS FOREVER to the inside of CUE THE MUSIC to obtain a run. He said after obtaining clear running from the 150 Metres, THANKS FOREVER then finished off the race strongly. When questioned regarding the performance of VOYAGE WARRIOR, Z Purton stated that VOYAGE WARRIOR did not feel relaxed with MULTIMILLION racing directly to its inside. He said although the race was being run at a strong tempo, he was reluctant to steady VOYAGE WARRIOR in the early stages given that the horse had a tongue tie applied after making a breathing noise in its track work. He said although VOYAGE WARRIOR would not relax as he had hoped and the race was run at a strong tempo, nonetheless he felt that VOYAGE WARRIOR was disappointing in that it did not finish off the race over the concluding stages. A veterinary inspection of VOYAGE WARRIOR immediately following the race did not show any significant findings. A veterinary inspection of REFINED TREASURE immediately following the race found that horse to be lame in its right front leg. Before being allowed to race again, REFINED TREASURE will be subjected to an official veterinary examination. VOYAGE WARRIOR, AETHERO and BIG TIME BABY were sent for sampling.