Douglas Whyte enhanced his legend with another milestone win at Happy Valley on Sunday, 28 October, the 1,800th of his Hong Kong career.
Douglas Whyte seals his 1,800th Hong Kong win on Good Omen
The omens had looked good heading into the city track’s only daytime fixture this term. A book of seven rides included some obvious chances, but when the penultimate of the day’s 10 races came around, the 13-time former champion jockey was still on 1,799 with two second placings to frustrate and a 10/1 shot as his next conveyance.
“You get to that stage where you think it’s not going to happen today. Sometimes you get to 99 and that last one can take a while to get over the line,” Whyte said.
But the South African kept his cool and the portentously-named Good Omen delivered in the Class 3 Ting Kau Handicap (1650m).
“I kept positive and rode him the way he needed to be ridden rather than in a way that I might have wanted to,” Whyte said of Dennis Yip’s charge, zero from eight in Hong Kong prior to today.
“This horse has taught me a lot,” he explained. “He’s been difficult and yet also uncomplicated – I mean that in the sense that if he gets a good draw and you try to place him, as soon as you get on the bridle he just feels like a Class 3 or Class 4 horse; but when you get him to sleep and he gets into his rhythm he’s got a really good turn-of-foot. He’s put them to bed in a couple of hundred metres there.”
Whyte has career earnings north of HK$1.5 billion and his running tally of 1,800 wins is more than 900 clear of his closest pursuer, reigning champion jockey Zac Purton. The South African is known for his focus and professionalism and that was apparent post-race.
When asked about “the eighteen-hundred” his mind was still in the zone, thinking about the horse first: “He’ll go 10 furlongs,” he responded.
A prompt drew a smiling realisation: “I’ll think about it tonight now – I’ve been thinking about it a bit in the past couple of days – it’s another great achievement, it’s something to go on the mantelpiece and it’s nice to get it today on this horse,” he added.
The rider’s first Hong Kong win was back in the 1996/97 campaign when he arrived in the city on a short-term contract. After winning that season’s QEII Cup on London News, he made the relocation long-term.
“The first winner for me here was imperative, there’s a lot of expectation when you arrive in this place, there’s a lot challenges and a lot of competition,” he said. “There is no room for error; if you don’t hit the ground running it can be a graveyard.
“You can bring the best here and if they don’t get on the right horses or ride the right races it can send them home a broken individual. It can make or break and I’ve seen it make or break many good jockeys.”
Whyte himself has gone through some rough spells in the past couple of seasons but with his win count for the term at nine, and sitting fifth in the premiership, he is eyeing a spot in December’s LONGINES International Jockeys Championship. And he hasn’t ruled out a push to reach 2,000 wins either.
“Why not? I’m healthy, I’m fit and I’m still enjoying riding,” the 46-year-old said.
Good Omen’s success gave Yip a double, the trainer having landed the sixth race with the Victor Wong-ridden Starlight.
