Whyte treble in Hong Kong!!!

Improving Tai Sing Yeh stars in Whyte treble


Report: Hong Kong, Sunday

Happy Valley

Improving youngster Tai Sing Yeh formed the centrepiece of a late Douglas Whyte treble at Sunday's Happy Valley meeting as the perennial champion jockey drew level with the suspended Brett Prebble at the top of the Hong Kong jockeys' championship.
Tai Sing Yeh


Making it five wins from six starts, three-year-old Tai Sing Yeh continues to climb the ranks and now looks bound for a date at Sha Tin against more established rivals with trainer Manfred Man running out of suitable options at the City track where he has been solely deployed.

Neither will it surprise if the son of Not A Single Doubt is upped in distance when he next surfaces after this fifth win over the Valley's six furlongs. The 4-7 chance was headed inside the final marker by Deferential only to rally and grind out a half-length margin in the featured Manawatu Racing Club Challenge Trophy.

Having drawn a blank until the eighth of the ten-race programme, Whyte also steered Happee Gift (John Moore) and Sapelli (John Size) to victory with the latter obliging for the fourth time on the bounce.

The Durban-born jockey now has the opportunity to lead the riders' ranks for the first time this season during the midweek Valley programme before Prebble returns at the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup/Champions Mile meeting at Sha Tin nextSunday.


After the same meeting, however, Prebble is likely to regain the advantage with his nemesis subsequently sidelined for four days owing to careless riding charges accumulated recently.

Whyte was not the only one to celebrate a trio of successes on the card. Trainer Dennis Yip prepared three of the first four races with local freelance Howard Cheng in the saddle on Caga Spirit and Ottimo. Cheng later made it a treble when Floral Nirvana (Danny Shum) had the barest margin to spare over Zephyrus in the middle leg of the popular Triple Trio jackpot that held ₤560,000.

As is his want, trainer Caspar Fownes did not leave the venue empty-handed either and combined with Darren Beadman - something of a rarity these days - to take win a Class 4 mile with Mark Up and thebest quality race of the meeting, a Class 1 event over nine furlongs with Noble Conqueror.

The latter has never won at Sha Tin, but is the greatest Happy Valley specialist in recent memory. Here he recorded his third victory in a row and his ninth overall downtown.

Dougie is going to miss 4 meetings after Sunday so Brett will get a nice lead on him again but i'm confident Dougie will run away from him before the end of the season !