Bits & Pieces – try this on for Size

WE SAW IT

William Pike had been given permission by the Hong Kong Jockey Club to ride at Perth’s big meeting on Saturday, but because of “difficulties in making satisfactory travel arrangements” (that is, to get back to ride at Sha Tin in Hong Kong yesterday) he called off the trip.

It was the right move that kept him in the right place at the right time, and paid off three-fold. Pike, last season’s champion jockey in Western Australia, had a treble for Australian trainer John Size, to double his tally of wins for the Hong Kong season that began in mid-September.

The middle pin of the winners was Holi Ravioli (B g 6, Fasliyev (USA)-Curio Jade, by Varick (GB)) at better than 30/1 in the main race, the $HK1.75 million (about $A250,000) Midland Holdings Cup (1650m). The others were 9/4 chance A Walk In The Park (B g 4, Faltaat (GB)-Awave (NZ), by Crested Wave (USA)) and 9/1 shot Moonwalk (B g 4, Traditionally (USA)-Waikiki Princess, by Turtle Island (IRE)).

Size put Pike on because his No. 1 rider Douglas Whyte, Hong Kong’s champion for the past nine seasons, was in Japan for an invitation series. The engagements followed Pike’s win on Appreciation for Size a week earlier, when the trainer praised him but pointed out how difficult it was for little-known newcomers to get good rides when the top jockeys had the market cornered.

Size backed his words with rides on Sunday, and Pike (23) delivered … and vastly improved his chances of having his contract renewed in February for the remainder of the season that finishes mid-2010.

“It is very rewarding when you have a day like this here; just a great feeling any time you win here because it really isn’t easy,” Pike told Alan Aitken of the South China Morning Post. “There are a lot of good jockeys here and it’s hard to break in.”

Size said: “It is difficult to get opportunities here but he’s a good lightweight and, with Douglas having a day away in Japan, that meant there was a chance for Willie and he has taken full advantage of it.”

Size, after an early drought, is moving quickly up the trainers’ premiership towards his usual top-three spot. He has 13 wins, five off the pace set by Caspar Fownes and John Moore. Victorian Brett Prebble (30 wins) is top jock – he didn’t ride at the weekend but returns from suspension for the international day at Sha Tin on Sunday.

Pike’s Perth ride? It was to have been at Ascot on Star Encounter, eighth at $41 in the $500,000 Group 1 Kingston Town Classic (1800m), won by Sniper’s Bullet ($5.50), who completed the State’s spring-summer Group 1 double – and the first to do it in that order since the Railway was moved from December/January to November in 2005. Nash Rawiller won the Railway Stakes (1600m) – at $17 – and Damien Oliver took over in the Kingston Town, which took to $2.4 million the earnings for Sniper’s Bullet (B g 6, Bite The Bullet (USA)-Yallah Terrace, by Yallah Prince).

The gelding’s trainer Tracey Bartley (42), from Mudgee in NSW (soon to move to Brisbane), is a story himself. The Age reported on Saturday that Bartley quit riding in 2000 after a horror fall left him with a loss of balance of 18 months and, in 2006, was found to have stomach cancer – he was given the all clear last year. On top of that, Damien Murphy, apprenticed to Bartley, died after a race fall in 2007; and last year trainer Pat Quinn, father of Bartley’s wife (also Tracy but without the ‘e’), died after a heart attack when pinned against a rail by a horse.

Having read about Bartley, you could not help but cheer home Sniper’s Bullet.

God Has Spoken (Br c 3, Blackfriars-Dolly Will Do, by Rubiton) was second at $9 ahead of $3.10 favourite Scenic Shot (B g 7, Scenic (IRE)-Sweepshot, by Dr Grace (NZ)). The 3YO could back up in the $100,000 Listed St. Leger (2100m) on Saturday and Scenic Shot, who finished well, could tackle the $250,000 Group 2 C.B. Cox Stakes (wfa, 2100m) – a race he won in 2006 – the next week.

Across the Tasman, Ekstreme won the Group 1 Captain Cook Stakes (wfa, 1600m) at Trentham, prompting trainer Bryce Revell, a former jumps jockey, to say that next year’s Group 1 Cox Plate (wfa, 2040m) at Moonee Valley would be the mare’s target. Opie Bosson rode Ekstreme (B m 4, Ekraar (USA)-Cashcade (NZ), by Anziyan (USA)).

THEY SAID IT

“I would have sold him,” said trainer Mick Price of impressive Caulfield winner Marconi (B g 3, Lago Delight-Capriceuse (NZ), by Grosvenor (NZ)). Price had been offered $250,000 for the once headstrong colt, now tractable gelding, but he failed Hong Kong’s stringent vet exam – twice.  Seeing that Price bought Capriceuse, who was in foal with Marconi, for only $4000 from an advertisement in The Weekly Times,  a sale would have been a guaranteed a big profit – his wife, Caroline, wanted to breed “warm blood” eventing or show jumping horses.

Price said Marconi, despite a minor fetlock problem, was sound and was shaping like he had a racetrack future. Saturday’s runaway 5½-length win in the Acryn Plate (1000m) at $2.30 followed a six-length romp at Stony Creek a month ago and backed the “racetrack future” claim.

The Prices got their “warm blood” foal from Capriceuse, but she died giving birth.

“It’s nice when they replicate on race day,” said Randwick trainer John O’Shea after Ambers Waltz ($1.85f) lived up to her work on the training track and won the www.attheraces.com.au Handicap at Rosehill on Saturday. Ambers Waltz (Br f 2, Danehill Dancer (IRE)-Ambers Halo, Don’t Say Halo (USA)), a $550,000 Magic Millions buy, is likely to head to the Gold Coast for January’s Magic Millions 2YO race – she races in the blue with pink hoops made famous for West Australian Keith Biggs by 1995 Melbourne Cup winner Doriemus.

O’Shea has had a filly “replicate” two Saturdays on end – the other is Solar Charged (B or br f, Charge Forward-Soul Singer, by Danehill (USA)), an impressive winner on Randwick’s Kensington track as $2.40 favourite on November 28.

WE’LL WATCH IT

The international focus this week is on the Cathay Pacific meeting at Sha Tin in Hong Kong with four rich Group 1 races – the Sprint (1200m), the Mile (1600m), the Cup (2000m) and the Vase (2400m). Australia has three Sprint reps (All Silent, Scenic Blast and Apache Cat) and one in the Mile (Racing To Win), and will be represented by Hugh Bowman, Sydney’s premier rider, in a three-race jockeys’ invitation series at a warm-up meeting at Happy Valley on the Wednesday night.

There’s plenty to see in Melbourne at the weekend, too, with races at Moonee Valley on Friday night, at Flemington on Saturday and at Moonee Valley again on Sunday, the third meeting a twilighter fitting snugly with Hong Kong and Singapore (Kranji).

On Saturday, Ascot has the Group 3 Scahill Stakes (1400m) and two Listed races, Eagle Farm has three Listed races, and Rosehill and Morphettville each has one.