Sha Tin Story

[apracing]

This is an extract from the weekly column posted by Richard Hoiles on WBX – I thought it might appeal to TRF members as an interesting insight into riding tactics.

Lastly I hope you can forgive a bit of self indulgence but a major chapter in my racing life came to an end on Saturday when after 16 years riding in Hong Kong Felix Coetzee returned to South Africa.

For five seasons I had the pleasure of working with Felix doing his form and tactics. Speed maps were produced for every single race, if they put us in a good spot then we knew who to follow, how far they would take us etc and if not we used to discuss at length which actions would improve the position and hence our chances. Felix loved riding to a plan and I used to feel like I was sitting on his shoulder during races knowing his thought processes and decision making like it was my own.

We discussed endlessly how to ride Happy Valley, how it seemed so easy to boss 1400m races at Sha Tin and a lot about the psychology of not allowing bad race to spill over into the next.

Felix, like so many jockeys, was only interested in winners. By changing his outlook to accept he had done well if he got the fifth best horse to finish third it was a good ride had a massive impact on his mood during raceday. Like Frankie Dettori, there was very little chance of him riding a winner in the last if he had been beaten on good chances or found trouble earlier on in the day, he began to win the final race with amazing regularity as if it was a personal challenge! He would still give me an earful of frustration as we ran through each ride after racing but at least he would save it for then.

I learnt more from him than any other single person in racing, mainly due to the fact we are both placid but very competitive and hence we were always happy to disagree about a horses traits, trip etc. We would move on and next time it ran see who now looked as if they were right. No point scoring, no arguing, just always trying to understand a horse and the conditions and ride that suited them best.

One ride summed up our entire time together. The horse was Fat Choy Together a formerly useful stayer who had been run virtually every other week for years by Felix’s old boss Brian Kan and was now thoroughly stale and out of love with things. Brian always wanted his horses to lead so Felix used to spend the first half of the race driving the horse to the front, never giving him any peace, and dropping out. As a stayer he had plummeted in the ratings and had been entered for the only AW mile and a half race on the calendar. This was the only race of the entire season where they ran over a circuit and a half with the start in the back straight the stalls positioned just over a furlong from the first turn.

Whenever we got to the map for Fat Choy’s races we just used to shrug. ‘I suppose Brian wants to lead ?’ I would ask and every time Felix would smile and nod. This time however we constructed a rather bizarre plan. We were drawn out wide and clearly the usual lethargic start would see us have to be driven wide round the first turn to get to the lead already ending any chance. Instead we decided that on this occasion we would just pop him out and sit on him. Then as the field turned into the straight for the first time and those that had got their spots in front tried to sit up we would pull wide off the turn, give him a couple of reminders and go to the front. It would probably look as if we were riding a finish a circuit early, except we weren’t.

The beauty of our working relationship was even though this was well outside the box I knew Felix would do it. Sure enough the old horse looked rather puzzled as to why he wasn’t being whacked early and actually settled no worse than midfield and not too deep. Turning into the straight Felix pulled him out gave him three reminders and he took off. 15 lengths clear with a circuit to run. Douglas Whyte also riding in the race told me afterwards there was much amusement in the pack amongst the other riders catcalling and shouting encouragement.

As Felix kept riding hard however and the advantage grew to 25 lengths with 6f to travel it suddenly dawned on them what he was doing. The all weather track at Sha Tin is deep like Southwell and favoured front runners and Fat Choy had been a useful horse in his day. Still 15 lengths clear turning in he was out on his feet inside the last but he held on grimly to win by three. Crossing the line Felix punched the air stood up in the irons and pointed his whip up towards the TV presentation position where I was virtually too hoarse to pick up from commentator David Raphael. Felix never did tell the rest of the media why, in the lowest grade race of the day, he had celebrated as if it was a Group 1.

We only speak now and again these days but when calling to wish him all the best for his return to South Africa it wasn’t long before there was a quiet chuckle and a ‘remember Fat Choy?’.

[seabird]

Thanks for that, Alan.

Colin

[rory]

Excellent piece indeed.

[Author]

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