Winks and Dim Sum add up to a Group 1 win

Just a month into his first riding stint in Hong Kong, Melbourne’s James Winks has won his first Asian Group 1 race – on 50/1 chance Dim Sum in Sunday’s Chairman’s Sprint Prize.

The 1200m dash at Sha Tin is a $HK4.5 million (about $900,000) race, and Winks will pocket some $50,000 from the purse to go with the glory.

But the 25-year-old’s win on Dim Sum is not the sum of Australian Group 1 success on the day – John Moore, son of the great jockey, the late George Moore, trained the winner, and he also trained the other, bigger Group 1 winner.

Moore’s major success was with Viva Pataca, Hong Kong’s best 2000m-plus horse, in the Citi Hong Hong Gold Cup (2000m), worth $HK8 million (about $1.6 million). And Darren Beadman, one of Australia’s established riding stars in Hong Kong, had the mount. The victory, and the way he went about it signalled that Beadman is back on top of his game after missing several weeks with a debilitating back/hip injury.

While Moore and Beadman are used to elite success in Hong Kong, Winks was over the moon when Dim Sum (B g 5, Kyllachy (GB)-Heckle (GB), by In The Wings (GB)) held off a strong field that included sprint champion Sacred Kingdom, an unlucky third.

Winks raised his whip high in the air to salute his third win in Hong Kong, and the end of a mini-drought; after two early wins he had ridden at several meetings without success.

Breaking through in the tough Hong Kong arena can involve a lot of luck, and with Dim Sum staying out of trouble up on the pace, Winks was able to push him to the lead in a war up the straight. Enthused (Douglas Whyte), who raced in Australia as Let’s Migrate, was a head away second and Sacred Kingdom (Olivier Doleuze) was a only a neck from the winner in third place, just ahead of Sunny Power, ridden by another Australian, Brett Prebble. 

“This is just amazing,” Winks told the South China Morning Post’s Murray Bell after the trophy presentation. “Just being here is a great experience, but to win a race like this so soon is way beyond anything I had expected.

“I got those two early winners here, but then the last few weeks have been a struggle. But they tell me that happens to everyone when they get to Hong Kong, and to just keep going and something will happen.

“Well today something incredible happened and I can’t thank John (Moore) and the owners, the Pong family, enough for giving me this opportunity.”

Bell reported that Winks fielded congratulations from a number of jockeys, but the one with the best parallel story was Brett Prebble. “This will be the turning point for you,” Prebble told him. “In my first season, I fluked picking up the ride on Precision and we won the Group 1 Champions & Chater Cup, but that one win was the difference between me staying here and going home.”

Winks was licensed late last month for the remainder of the season, with July 1 the last race day. He said his performances in Hong Kong would determine whether the Jockey Club gave him another season. As Prebble said, a Group 1 win can be just the push a rider needs.

The Chairman’s Sprint is Winks’s third Group 1 win overall. He won the Yalumba Stakes (2000m) all the way on Douro Valley (at 40/1) at Caulfield last spring, and the Winter Stakes (1400m) on Absolut Glam on at Eagle Farm in Brisbane last June.

Moore said Winks gave the sprint winner a great ride. “He had him settled in third or fourth and then Dim Sum showed great heart,” the trainer said.

HKJC stewards weren’t impressed with Beadman’s ride on River Jordan, another Moore runner in the sprint. They severely reprimanded him when probing early interference to Sacred Kingdom. They said they accept competitive riding, but warned Beadman he must exercise care to ensure his riding does not place him in breach of a significant Rule of Racing.

River Jordan, an outsider, finished last. Beadman’s winner, Viva Pataca (B or br g 7, Marju (Ire)-Comic (Ire), by Be My Chief (USA)) was sent out at $1.30. He repeated last season’s success in this event.

Moore leads the trainers’ premiership with 47 wins from 273 runners. Enthused’s trainer John Size, also an Australian, is second with 36-246.

Beadman is third on the jockeys’ ladder with 27-186. Whyte is well clear with 62-364 from Prebble 37-303. Winks is 3-43.