ROB'S SHOUT - BUFF IN HONG KONG (PART 1)

By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, December 4, 2014

In his personal blog, exclusive to HRO, multiple premiership winning trainer Robert Heathcote gives a first hand account of what is involved in taking his stable star Buffering on an International assignment.

Phase 1 of the ‘Operation Honkers’ plan has been successfully completed.

Buffering is in his box at Sha Tin in Hong Kong, but I have to say the day of departure was not without plenty of drama and plenty of anxious moments.

At 6 am on Monday morning I received a call from the horse carriers, New Zealand Bloodstock, that Buff’s travelling mate had a bout of colic on Sunday evening and would not be travelling. This was a blow to us, as well as the connections of Criterion.

It meant Buffering would not only have to make the long and arduous 10 hour odd journey on his own but also he would be stabled in Hong Kong on his own and not see another horse until race day.

Certainly not ideal and this is what the last Aussie representative on the International Day, Sea Siren, had to endure and she certainly raced way below her best on that occasion.

I immediately contacted the Hong Kong authorities to see if we could arrange a retired horse or a pony to bunk up with Buff for the four weeks he was in HK to keep him company.

Unfortunately the Hong Kong Government officials knocked that request on the head so I was resigned to Buff being on his ‘Pat Malone’!

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My day brightened considerably mid-morning when I was informed all efforts were being made by the David Hayes team and his vets to get Criterion cleared to make the flight so there was still hope he would fly.

So basically the flight for Criterion was back on and then, as the horses were about to arrive at Tullamarine Airport at about 5 in the arvo, the NZ Bloodstock agent called and said the Primary Industries Vet has knocked the trip for Criterion on the head.

Bugger … so the frustrations were back again!

From here I don’t know exactly what transpired at Melbourne airport but it was a stressful time with the head vet from Racing Victoria basically signing off on the safety of Criterion with Melanie calling me excitedly to say both horses were loaded onto the pallet and about to go onto the plane as the time for departure was getting scarily close.

After the on again and off again day it had been and not wanting to cop another disappointment, I texted back to Melanie and said I won’t believe they are both flying until you are rolling down the runway as the Cathay Pacific pilots were getting dangerously close to exceeding their flight hours and may have to ‘park up’ for the night!

Mel excitedly texted me with 15 minutes remaining for the flight to be aborted to say, ‘We are taxiing down the f@#*@%* runway … Yeeehaaa, Honkers here we come!’

Gee, this was only the first day of our international racing experience so surely it had to get better than this?

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The flight time turned out to be just over 8 hours and both horses coped really well. In fact the Hong Kong vets commented to Melanie as they were being unloaded how calm and relaxed they were.

Buffering lost about 10 kilos on the flight which they tell me is about normal for a horse flying that long.

It was about an hour’s trip from the airport to the stable complex at the Sha Tin racetrack. Melanie sent me a pic of the ‘boys’ on the float which went viral on social media … just bloody great to have them both safely landed and heading to the stables.

The Jockey club had a limo waiting to take us to the hotel at Sha Tin. That was a nice touch.

Happy Valley Raced last night which meant no track access for us in the morning until 10am ... must want give the industry participants a sleep in after a late night.

Now that's a thought!

TO BE CONTINUED

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