20/12/2017  Happy Valley  Race 3

HAPPY AND HEALTHY and PERFECT CHOICE were crowded for room on jumping between SUN TOUCH and CALL ME AWESOME, both of which shifted ground. In this incident, CALL ME AWESOME became unbalanced when bumped by HAPPY AND HEALTHY. From wide barriers, HAR HAR HEART and PEARL WARM WARM were steadied in the early stages and shifted across behind runners. Near the 1300 Metres, CALL ME AWESOME was awkwardly placed inside the heels of MEGATRON which was steadied away from the heels of WAH MAY BABY (Apprentice H T Mo) which shifted in when not properly clear. Apprentice Mo was reprimanded and advised to ensure that he is properly clear when shifting ground. For some distance after the 450 Metres, CALL ME AWESOME was awkwardly placed close to the heels of MEGATRON. In the early part of the Straight, HAR HAR HEART (M Chadwick) raced with its head on the side, lay out and was difficult to ride, resulting in HAR HAR HEART being awkwardly placed inside the heels of PERFECT CHOICE passing the 200 Metres. HAR HAR HEART continued to lay out and proved difficult to ride and passing the 100 Metres shifted out, resulting in PERFECT CHOICE, which was giving ground abruptly, being inconvenienced. HAR HAR HEART then continued to lay out, resulting in SUN TOUCH being crowded for room at the 50 Metres between HAR HAR HEART and WAY MAY BABY which shifted in marginally. Whilst acknowledging that HAR HAR HEART was proving very difficult to ride, nonetheless M Chadwick was warned for using the whip on the horse on two occasions in the right hand given the manner in which HAR HAR HEART was laying out. After this, M Chadwick was obliged to stop riding HAR HAR HEART and straighten his mount. Having regard to the manner in which the horses were finishing off the race and the half length margin between HAR HAR HEART and SUN TOUCH at the end of the race, the Stewards did not proceed to consider a protest/objection on behalf of the connections of SUN TOUCH. It should be noted that Z Purton, the rider of SUN TOUCH, did not lodge a protest/objection against HAR HAR HEART. Approaching the 200 Metres, SUN TOUCH lay in and was awkwardly placed outside the heels of PERFECT CHOICE which was commencing to give ground. Near the 100 Metres, PEARL WARM WARM was steadied when disappointed for running between HAPPY AND HEALTHY and GOLDEN SLEEP (K Teetan) which shifted out under pressure. K Teetan was advised to exercise more care in similar circumstances. Close to the finishing line, GOLDEN SLEEP turned its head to the left and attempted to savage HAPPY AND HEALTHY. Having regard to the fact that this was GOLDEN SLEEP’s 37th race start in Hong Kong and the horse had not previously been reported to have attempted to savage another runner, Mr C H Yip, the trainer of GOLDEN SLEEP, was advised that a warning would be placed on the horse and should it offend again in a similar manner in future, further action would be taken. Mr Yip undertook to consider amending the horse’s gear before it races again. Due to GOLDEN SLEEP attempting to savage HAPPY AND HEALTHY, this resulted in Apprentice M F Poon, the rider of HAPPY AND HEALTHY, taking evasive action close to the finishing line which resulted in him not being able to ride the horse out all the way to the end of the race. CALL ME AWESOME, which was following GOLDEN SLEEP, was steadied away from the heels of that horse after GOLDEN SLEEP became unbalanced when corrected by its rider. A veterinary inspection of CALL ME AWESOME immediately following the race found that horse to have bled from both nostrils. A veterinary inspection of MEGATRON immediately following the race did not show any significant findings, however, the horse was unable to be scoped due to being fractious. CALL ME AWESOME, HAR HAR HEART and SUN TOUCH were sent for sampling.