Whether he was hungry, angry, or both – or an anti-whips campaigner in disguise – Intellectualstride became “the horse that bit back” at the Valley last night – nearly taking a chunk out of a stunned Tim Clark in the best mid-race lash-out since Maxime Guyon’s impetuous brain snap in January.
Of course, Guyon should have known better when he gave fellow rider Keith Yeung Ming-lun a couple of lashes across the back at Sha Tin, an act of unprovoked violence seemingly the result of frustration at some pretty average efforts in the saddle – but where on earth did Intellectualstride’s Guyon-esque effort emanate from?
However enlightening they are to poor performances of horses and humans, stewards reports can be pretty dry reading. As a pastime, reading them ranks alongside calling call centres just to listen to the on-hold music and they are a sure-fire cure for insomnia. But last night’s post-race report for race five was spiced up when it revealed Clark, riding Hong Kong Fat, accidentally made contact with Intellectualstride’s face with his whip with 150 metres to run.
What happened next can be seen clearly on the front-on patrol footage as Clark got more than he bargained for whenIntellectualstride lurched towards him like he hadn’t been fed in a week – still galloping at full speed – making like Jaws as he went at the Australian jockey’s forearm, only just failing to sink his teeth in.
A shocked Clark, by now out of contention, stopped riding as he tried to comprehend what had happened and Intellectualstride proceeded to throw his legs everywhere, giving the impression he had broken down when in fact he was, as one official succinctly put it, “pissed”.
The bizarre footwork did have a touch of Gangnam Style about it – versions of which had been keeping the masses entertained in the Beer Garden all night. Some of the performers wore boxes over their heads: smart move as the dance is about to go the way of Mitt Romney.
