BROWNIE'S BLOG - READY FOR THE SHA TIN SHOWDOWN

By Damian Browne | Thursday, April 28, 2016

Damian Browne, reigning Queensland's Jockey Of The Year, is rated right up there with the best jockeys in Australia and, as such, his highly informed views make essential reading for anyone in the racing industry, especially when he gives thoughts on his favourite horse Buffering, who faces an international, Group 1 challenge in Hong Kong on Sunday. Damian’s column, ‘Brownies Blog’ appears exclusively on HRO

The time has come for me to fly to Hong Kong to meet up with Buffering and the team before Sunday’s Group 1, Chairman’s Sprint Prize at Sha Tin.

It’s going to be quite exciting. There are a lot of different ways the race can pan out with the weather still likely to play a hand as well.

Coming up with barrier three was almost ideal as far as the draw goes. The most important part though is for Buffering to jump clean. If he is able to do that I’m sure I’ll be able to, hopefully, dictate from there.

If he dwells a little bit I’m obviously going to have to dig up a bit and hold my spot ... but I couldn’t be happier with the barrier at this stage.

Generally most of the races in Hong Kong are high pressure races. They do tend to get along at a very good tempo to the degree that barriers do play a part, particularly in the sprint races.

It is a highly competitive field and we won’t be using the track or the tempo or anything else as an excuse.

The only thing I don’t want to see is too much rain.

Obviously I’ll be walking the track beforehand again trying to find the best avenue to be on.

Hopefully we can get on that part of the surface

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With all of the social media that’s around, I’ve been able to follow the regular postings about Buffering made by the stable and the Jockey Club as well as many news reports.

All of that keeps you pretty much up to date in terms of his work and how things are going generally both with Buff himself and his opposition. By all accounts he has done well and he looks good from all I have seen.

I haven’t been in direct contact with Rob (Heathcote) as yet. We’ll have plenty of time to discuss everything when I get there.

You might remember Buffering got a stone bruise midweek leading up to the race last time he was in Hong Kong which wasn’t ideal, but hopefully he stays trouble-free this time (as he did in Dubai) and gives us our chance.

It is only Mel (Sharpe) who has suffered an inconvenience so far. She went over on her ankle ... but I’m sure she is happy to take one for the team as long as Buffering stays well.

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Whatever happens, following his win in Dubai, Buffering is going to come home an international winner in any case, but, contrary to what some have suggested, I don’t think that changes anything going into Sunday’s race.

Obviously it is nice to have got that win under our belt, but this is a separate race and a new challenge.

With what he has been doing Buffering has created such a huge expectation now and that expectation can bring a certain amount of pressure.

Thankfully though, Buffering himself helps defuse that pressure.

He is so relaxed and a proven horse with everything he has done ... with the travelling and all sorts of other things ... that he sort of sets us at ease. We are very fortunate that we’ve got a horse like him that is so adaptable.

He is like the old-timer taking us under his wing.

That’s unlike when you travel with a younger horse or a flighty horse or a horse that doesn’t travel well ... then you’ve got a lot of worries.

Buffering takes all of that out of the equation for us which is a big help.

He just sets the right tone for us.

Whether Buffering can make it back-to-back international Group 1 victories ... well, we’ll know soon enough.

I’ll tell you all about it next week.

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