MAKE no mistake, if the knees of Prix de l'Abbaye winner Namid stand up then he will be here for the 1,000-metre Hong Kong Sprint on December 17. Namid is owned by Lady Clague, widow of the late Sir Douglas Clague, who was the chairman of the board of Stewards of the then Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club from 1973 to 1978.
The Clague horses in Hong Kong, racing in all-magenta colours, all had Manx to their names and enjoyed varying degrees of success. The best of them might well have been Manx Star.
Saturday's story in our Racing Post guide was not entirely exclusive - former Hong Kong journalist and commentator Jim McGrath had given it to viewers of the BBC within minutes of the Prix de l'Abbaye ending. 'But a lot really depends on how he comes out of this race. He has had chips removed from the knees and it is a concern,' said McGrath.
Lady Clague, having just won Europe's biggest sprint, was extremely upbeat. The sprightly widow said: 'The success we have had with this horse has been wonderful, but the one race I would love to win is the Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin. Oh, I would love that.'
Namid is trained by John Oxx on The Curragh and ridden, of course, by Hong Kong's new Club jockey signing, Johnny Murtagh, who will be doing his share of travelling in the next month.
Daliapour goes for the US$1.5 million Canadian International at Woodbine, Ontario, next Sunday and Murtagh will, as usual, ride for the Aga Khan. He is then back to Ireland before embarking afresh to Churchill Downs and then on to Melbourne.
If prices at the world's yearling sales-rings continue to soar, expect a cut in quality for those horses destined for Hong Kong. Or certainly those bought by the Jockey Club for their annual December sale.
