Happy Lucky Dragon Win | More than meets the eye with stampede of stable transfers
When a horse transfers from one stable to another, it can sometimes prove embarrassing for the former trainer
As far as a metaphorical kick in the guts goes for a horse trainer, they don’t come much more painful than a departed stable transfer improving out of sight for a new handler. When a horse “improves” for a new yard, the rather simplistic public perception has the new trainer down as “better” – or at the very least luckier – than the last, and reputations are adjusted accordingly.
In the close quarters of Sha Tin, where the same horses race against each other week-in and week-out, are stabled in the same buildings and trained on exactly the same tracks, it’s easy to fall into making a like-for-like comparison between two trainers on each end of a transfer.
Hong Kong owners have a ruthless reputation for moving horses: John Yuen Se-kit famously transferred Good Ba Ba – then the highest rated miler in the world and a six-time Group One winner – from trainer Andreas Schutz, reportedly on the advice of a feng shui expert.
It was one of eight times the champion was moved in 46 starts – and that’s before his ill-advised “post retirement” career in Macau and Australia. And even though owners get a bad rap here, it should be added that there are probably a few scurrilous trainers lurking in the owners’ bar who just happen to have transfer papers in their back pockets, ready to sign.
On Wednesday night at Happy Valley, Manfred Man Ka-leung threw in a few extra fist-pumps when he won a Class Two handicap with Tai Sing Yeh. Man purchased the horse as a yearling and won five races with the speedy Valley specialist, before the horse was transferred twice, spending two winless seasons at rival yards before eventually scoring on his first start back with his original handler.
Usually there is a certain etiquette when it comes to speaking to the media after winning with a transfer: you don’t dump on the former trainer, even if the obligatory “He came here in good health and the other bloke did a good job” quotes need to be delivered while smiling like a split watermelon and with a barely controllable giggle.
In between his celebratory fist-pumps and high-fiving random passers-by, it became clear that Man isn’t down with the code, or he just doesn’t care, delivering this missive to Tony Millard and Richard Gibson via SCMP Racing Post: “They pushed him too hard, he is only a skinny horse, but I know him and I don’t give him so much pressure,” he said, modestly, before pumping his fist again.
