Prebble gets a tune out of Melody as Turbo misfires

23/12/2016

By David Morgan

Brett Prebble thwarted a luckless former ally to snare the last at Happy Valley tonight, Thursday, 22 December, as he signed off for Christmas with a game, if perhaps slightly fortuitous, victory in the Class 2 Mercury Handicap (1200m).

The Australian ace steered the John Size-trained Country Melody (126lb) through a pace-stalking, rail-hugging course to a neck victory, driving into the clear as the leaders swung wide off the home turn and then boxing on to hold the fast-finishing Super Turbo.

“He’s a quirky horse, Country Melody, but he’s drawn a gate (one) tonight and they’ve gone the perfect tempo for him, so he could drop his head – it can be tricky, the 1200 (metres) first-up after a break,” Prebble said. “He hadn’t raced for a while but he’d had  a couple of nice trials, he was fit and, as John said to me, he hadn’t had a race to be really hard fit but he does go well fresh, so that was on the plus side.

“To be fair, he was probably a little bit lucky. The second horse, he’s a smart horse, I won on him last time but he got unlucky there,” Prebble added.

Prebble had partnered Super Turbo (116lb) to victory at the grey’s pervious start but with Joao Moreira piloting the 3.5 favourite this time, David Hall’s charge had a less than smooth run to the wire. The champion jockey tracked Prebble’s run into the stretch but was forced to switch out around horses for a clear run with 150m remaining.

Country Melody, a 5.2 chance, was notching a sixth win at start 24. “My horse is tough and honest, he just tried hard – he’s going to be where it hurts now in the ratings though!” Prebble said.

The Tony Cruz-trained Verbinsky (121lb) ran on under Neil Callan to finish a further neck away in third as Country Melody stopped the clock at 1m 09.51s.

Callan too Sharp

Cries of “Iron Man!” rang out from one or two members of what must be assumed to have been the unofficial Callan fan club after the Irishman had swept the field aboard the Danny Shum-trained Sharp Sailor (124lb) in race six, the Class 3 Mars Handicap over 2200m. That sealed a double on the night for Callan, who was also on the mark in the opener, the Class 4 Saturn Handicap (1650m) atop 8.6 chance Acclaimed Light (130lb) for trainer Paul O’Sullivan.

Acclaimed Light’s win was a grinding, no frills effort: a gradual advance through the field; wide into the stretch; buffeting past a rival; driving to a short-head verdict in a four-way photo.

Sharp Sailor’s victory had a touch more panache but no less grit. The jockey’s decisive mid-race move urged his mount to the fore from a rearward position, the four-year-old skirting 10 of his 11 rivals within a 250-metre stretch to take it up with less than half a mile remaining. Once there, the British import was not for catching.

Zac Purton, alive to the surge, tracked the winner aboard top-weight Prawn Baba (132lb) but the lightly-raced four-year-old lacked the necessary turn of pace and could do no more than stay on dourly to within three quarters of a length at the line. That was a third second-place finish in as many Hong Kong starts for the Size trainee.

Sharp Sailor’s win, at 14/1, was his first at start 10 in Hong Kong and first since a 2000m handicap success at Newmarket in August, 2015 when trained by Marco Botti.
    
“When he won that day in England, at Newmarket, he made a long sustained run,” Callan said as he walked back to scale. “It’s been done before here in these staying races. Everybody knows these races are a little bit tricky but the pace was slacking over quite a sustained period so I decided to make a move. I knew when I went down the back straight, when I let him roll, that he was full of running and I thought he was going to hit the line strongly, so I let him go and he did just that.”

Victory Boys, the 3.1 race favourite, was trapped on the rail under Prebble when Callan set the race alight. David Hall’s charge ran on for third, a further three and a quarter lengths back. 

Yo-Yo for Murphy

Callan’s fellow Irish native, Oisin Murphy, notched the third win of his short winter contract when making all aboard Yo-Yo Da (124lb) in race four, section two of the Class 4 Jupiter Handicap (1200m). Horse and rider made it two from two together, having teamed up to score at the course and distance at the end of November. Tonight’s one-length win, ahead of runner-up Pakistan Baby (132lb), took trainers’ premiership leader Chris So’s tally for the season to 26.

“The only worry I had before the race was the draw (eight) but the horse was so calm today, he jumped out, got there and slowed down straight away once he got the lead. Oisin did a good job, he’s a very good jockey.

“This horse runs well when he’s around this rating but a couple of times he just had no luck with outside draws. But now he’s got two wins in a row, he’ll go up again in the ratings and it’s hard to say how he’ll cope with that – but if he retains his form he’ll go close. He’s a really happy horse right now, even the jockey said he jumped, settled easily on the lead and then was willing when he asked him to go again.”

Zac Purton and Almond Lee teamed up to take the second with Excellence, the 4.2 shot scoring his first Hong Kong win at start 15. Moreira hit the board in tandem with Super Sprinter in race five, the first leg of a Shum stable double.

Apprentice Kei Chiong kicked home Wonderful Journey for her boss, Ricky Yiu, in race seven, while trainer Benno Yung and jockey Derek Leung partnered for success in race three with Wild Boy.

Hong Kong racing resumes after Christmas at Sha Tin on Tuesday, 27 December.