With Joao Moreira holding a 30-win lead with 22 meetings left in a one-sided jockeys’ championship, where do we look for late-season drama and storylines?
Able Friend is already Horse of the Year and romps home with the miler category as well. Champion sprinter is Aerovelocity and whatever happens between now and the season finale on July 12, Designs On Rome will still be champion middle-distance performer.
So what is there left during the dog days of summer meetings? Some are obvious and sometimes the “battle within the war” is just as intriguing as the awards for winning.
Joao Moreira versus himself, history and the record books
What drives Joao Moreira? The next few months will be revealing.
Moreira obviously has the championship wrapped up, but now for the all-time records and setting new benchmarks. How hard will he push in pursuit of winners with nothing but history and a new standard of excellence to chase?
The Brazilian’s 102 winners so far is already the sixth best return of all time and there is still more than a quarter of the season remaining (a stretch that is still suspension free at this point).
After bringing up the fastest ever 100 wins last week, the next big number is 114 – Douglas Whyte’s all-time high that Moreira could go past by mid-May. If you set an over-under ‘How many wins for Moreira?’ market and made the line 135.5, it would provide some spirited betting.
Caspar Fownes versus John Moore versus John Size versus Tony Cruz
The trainers’ championship has been decided at the season finale in four of the past five seasons and 2014-15 has a similar look about it, even at this relatively early stage.
The leaderboard as it stands: John Moore 45 wins, Caspar Fownes 43, John Size 41 and Tony Cruz 38. Fifth-placed Paul O’Sullivan (36) is still theoretically within striking distance and he boasts the highest strike rate of any stable. For a trainer like O’Sullivan, winning the championship requires a concerted effort to throw numbers at the final meetings and he seems happier to use his success to restock with quality for next season.
That leaves the “big four” – all former multiple title winners – to battle it out.
Vincent Ho Chak-yiu versus Derek Leung Ka-chun
Matthew Chadwick has been leading local rider for the past six seasons but with the former whiz-kid out injured a couple of keen young talents have stepped up to the plate.
Vincent Ho Chak-yiu has 25 wins and a four-win break over Derek Leung Ka-chun for bragging rights as leading local, with both achieving at a high rate – even finding themselves above accomplished full-time senior riders Nash Rawiller and Olivier Doleuze.
Ho and Leung have a few things in common, aside from being talented, young, local jockeys riding on the back of good seasons by their former bosses (Fownes and O’Sullivan respectively).
Both took the initiative to spend time riding overseas in the off-season – Ho in France and Leung in Australia. The experience not only helped, but the fact they wanted to do it speaks volumes.
Dicky Lui Cheuk-yin versus the licensing committee
The stewards’ report from Sunday’s adjourned inquiry into Dicky Lui Cheuk-yin’s wayward navigation in a Happy Valley race didn’t read well for last season’s champion apprentice.
Lui was charged with two separate counts of careless riding aboard You Read My Mind and received a five-meeting ban.
Lui has already missed 21 meetings this season due to suspension, including an eight-meeting stretch on a running and handling charge and six incidents of careless riding in just 143 rides.
How’s this for ominous? Straight from the report: “Lui was advised that he must take the necessary steps to ensure that his race riding improves in respect of safety matters and that his riding record would be referred to the licensing committee when they consider licences for the 2015-2016 season.”
Sean Woods, Andreas Schutz, Michael Chang Chun-wai and Gary Ng Ting-keung versus the performance benchmark
For all the chest-pounding and trophy-raising that comes with being champion trainer, there is far more at stake at the other end of the table.Last season the minimum performance criteria was raised from 13 to 15 and any trainer failing to reach that mark three times is out of a job.
The only trainer on two strikes is Almond Lee, and he bagged his 15th winner on Sunday.
With just over 200 races left, for the four trainers yet to reach the mark, the race is on.
