Happy Lucky Dragon Win | Schutz's fix-me-up job qualifies as a great training effort
“Great training effort” is a line routinely trotted out after a feature race win, and often the plaudits are given to the big names. But many of the greatest training feats are by those nowhere near the top of the premiership tables and in the lower grade races.
“Great training effort” is a line routinely trotted out after a feature race win, and often the plaudits are given to the big names. But many of the greatest training feats are by those nowhere near the top of the premiership tables and in the lower grade races.
Of course, the actual “great training” takes place far away from the spotlight of race day, or even track work, and lies within the countless patient hours and ingenious work of a gifted and knowledgeable horseman.
Last night Andreas Schutz won the Sutherland Handicap with a horse named Little Dreams, just another Class Two handicap on one of many nights of racing at Happy Valley each year. Given the circumstances, though, it qualified as a truly remarkable effort by the German.
Other than on racedays, Little Dreams hasn’t even broken into a gallop since the start of September, let alone step outside the Olympic Stables compound where he is trained. The rising eight-year-old’s aching joints – courtesy of a litany of leg problems over the past few years – mean he hasn’t so much as dug a toe into the unforgiving all-weather track surface at Sha Tin. Yet this season Little Dreams has won two of three and now has a rating of 98.
It’s a minor miracle the horse is even still racing, but Little Dreams didn’t just turn up last night: he was named best from the yard by parade ring expert Jenny Chapman, then went out and performed accordingly.
