HK NOV 21 - JUDGE CANNOT SEPARATE ROCKET MAN AND ONE WORLD

By Hong Kong Jockey Club | Tuesday, November 23, 2010

A sensational race for the inaugural Cathay Pacific Jockey Club Sprint ended in a dead heat between Singapore champion Rocket Man, trained by Patrick Shaw, and the John Moore-trained One World, who came rattling down the outside as the pair finished wide apart on the track.

For some minutes before the result was declared, the general opinion followed that of the TV cameraman who focused on One World in the belief that he and Darren Beadman had won.

But when the numbers were posted, a great roar of what sounded like approval went up from a sporting Sha Tin crowd which clearly felt neither of the pair deserved to lose.

“I was a little bit concerned when he was a bit green going into the first turn,” said Shaw of Rocket Man who was conceding One World five pounds, “and he wasn’t running as freely as he usually does. He was switching leads and pricking his ears.”

In the straight Rocket Man finished with great power after having looked slightly outpaced at one stage, as he adapted to racing in the opposite direction from his homeland, and he got up on the line to share the victory.

Beadman was naturally delighted too with One World, who ran right up to the form that had seen him finish third in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at the Dubai World Cup meeting in which Rocket Man had finished a slightly unlucky looking runner up.

“It’s just in the last week and a half that he’s begun to come back to his old self,” said the jockey, “and that run showed he’s just about there. I didn’t know whether we’d won or not because they were so far apart.”

Just half a length behind the dead-heaters came the Danny Shum-trained Little Bridge, a rising star of Hong Kong racing who battled superbly to protect his unbeaten record in the sixth race of a career which only began on 23 May.

“That was a great run,” said Shum, who had been well aware of the leap in class the horse was taking.

“We definitely want to run him in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint on 12 December now. It all just depends if he’s selected.”

When asked if there might still be improvement to come from the relative novice, Shum added, “I think so. He’ll definitely keep improving, but maybe later at 1400m or 1600m.”

Little Bridge was followed in fourth by another John Moore runner, Dim Sum, previously believed even by his trainer to be a horse who must have give in the ground but who ran from the front in what may have been the race of his life.

Just behind Dim Sim, beaten a length and a quarter in all, came the champion and favourite Sacred Kingdom whose wide run under Brett Prebble flattened out in the closing stages.

In view of the fact that he was giving weight and failing to stride out freely at the turn perhaps the honours of the race just went to the visiting star, and Rocket Man’s trainer was full of hope afterwards about the CXHK Sprint on 12 December.

“We didn’t expect it to be a walkover,” said Shaw, who had said beforehand that he would be satisfied with a place in the first three in a race he saw as a prep for the CXHK Sprint, “but I’m always confident when this horse runs.

“I don’t think I can get him any fitter than he is now, but I do think we can do some work in the next few weeks to get him used to the right hand turn.”

Rocket Man’s South African owner Alfredo Crabbia was effusive in his appreciation of his experience of Sha Tin.

“That was absolutely fantastic,” said Crabbia. “I flew in last night and I’m just overwhelmed with the racecourse and the welcome we’ve had as well as by the way Rocket Man performed.

"Yes, he’s the best horse I’ve ever had.”

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