There’s a new job in town, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, now you too can apply to be…a professional barrier draw selector!
The pay is minimal, the reward thankless, the scrutiny unbearable, but there’s a gig there for the taking for those willing to be a whipping boy for the elite.
After months and months of careful planning and preparation, Thursday’s draw for the BMW Hong Kong Derby had owners, trainers and jockeys on heat, pacing up and down like chain smokers going cold turkey.
It’s an amusing hour – not because of the silly “kick-off ceremony” or the laborious double chance element (an owner picks a toy BMW which corresponds to a gate, then selects a horseshoe with the next runner, and so on), but because each of the 14 representatives walks to the stage like a man condemned.
Really, no one wants to wear the blame of drawing a bad gate. Sure, there is the connotation that gate 14 is terrible while gate one is ideal (neither is automatically a given, either) but it is not the fear of a wide run or a troubled trip which makes the drawing of a barrier the equivalent of walking down the highway to hell for owners.
No, it’s the fear of being labelled with that most horrific of terms – unlucky.
In the small world of Hong Kong racing, luck is the beginning and the end – it is the be all and end all. In a superstitious society, the insinuation that a person is out of luck is enough to kill careers. Just ask the numerous jockeys who have left Hong Kong with their tail between their legs, good rides having dried up because they aren’t considered a “lucky jockey”.
Last week’s blog about Siu Pak-kwan – in which we wrote the Siu family had an unlucky association with the Derby – was considered so blasphemous that a leading trainer was convinced The Griffin would be the sacrificial pig at the Siu family’s next bai-sun ceremony.
A casual chat with sophomore trainer Chris So Wai-yin about the wellbeing of his first Derby runner Redkirk Warrior on Tuesday revealed the nature of a big-race draw in Hong Kong.
After asking about the serious topics of trackwork and tactics ahead of the big race, So answered the question of who would select the toy car in earnest – even more intently than his other answers.
"We think we will get Edmond Lee to pick, he has been lucky before and has experience," he said. “The owner has never been to a draw before and she thinks Edmond should go up.”
The owner is Jenny Tam Yuk-ching, a racing novice, who was brought into racing by Edmond Lee Man-bun, of the Lee dynasty that own all the Packing horses – Llaregyb, Whiz, Tycoon, and so on.
Clearly, experience helps in this game of chance – although it didn’t help Lee too much. He got a case of the yips, hesitating when selecting a toy car, pulling off the sticker incorrectly, almost forgetting the second part of his role – to choose the next horse.
What does it matter, though? He drew gate six for Redkirk Warrior and he still can be considered lucky.
It’s not just a local concern, either.
John Moore, who has spent so much time in Hong Kong that he is as good as a local, was jittery before the draw as he prepared to do the honours for Helene Happy Star.
“This is the first horse I’ve had for the Woo family,” he said. “I tried to contact Wilson to come and draw the gate but he couldn’t come so I will be doing it. I hope I am as lucky for them as I have been for David Boehm – whenever I’ve had to draw for him, wherever in the world, the draw has been outstanding.”
The long-time trainer wasn’t so chipper as he pulled back the sticker to reveal Helene Happy Star would jump from gate nine.
A high-profile jockey also baulked at any suggestion that he would be drawing the gate for his horse, set to start one of the favourites on Sunday.
"Please! No way would I go near the stage,” he said. “We get blamed for enough things going wrong without getting blamed for picking the wrong gate as well."
Of course, when it goes the right way, the relief is palpable. When Wayfoong Express drew gate one for last year’s Derby, managing owner of the Wayfoong Syndicate Melvyn Ford almost needed the Oscars orchestra to interrupt his interview with English presenter Mark Richards.
Who could blame him, either? He had suddenly become the envy of 13 other owners, trainers, jockeys – all wanting that coveted inside gate.
No, not just the inside gate. They wanted to be lucky.
