Opinion | Class Five in a class of its own

Of course every Hong Kong owner dreams of their horse becoming the next Ambitious Dragon, but the equal opportunity Hong Kong system still provides for the thousands of others who fall well short of their ultimate aim of winning the Derby and basking in Group One glory.

The worse performed a horse is here, at least in terms of ratings points, the closer he often is to getting a win; and once near the bottom of the ratings, it can still be an exciting – and financially fruitful – ride for owners.

As one trainer said to us last weekend: “Sometimes the owners don’t seem to care if it is Class One, Group One or Class Five – they celebrate just the same. It’s all about ‘face’ – brining your friends or clients to the races and showing off, enjoying the thrill of winning.”

There was nothing thrilling about the early part of Really The Best’s career. He needed a “not” prefixing his name, and it appeared he could actually be Really The Worst. Ten unplaced runs had him tumbling down to the basement level of the bottom grade – the dreaded Class Five for horses rated zero to 40. But off a rating of 20, the gangly gelding won, then won again, and scored on Sunday carrying 124 pounds. He will be a big hope in Class Five next time too.

I’m sure Tsen Yun-lei didn’t buy Really The Best with Class Fives in mind, but after facing the fact his horse is slower than play-by-mail chess, I’m sure he is grateful for any sort of return – let alone three wins in a row.

In the Tony Millard stable, Ambitious Dragon is obviously the king – but his far less heralded stablemate Epee De Hua might be the better example of a success story typical of Hong Kong racing. For a start, he has had three trainers in five seasons, a relatively moderate turnover, but symbolic all the same. All unraced southern hemisphere horses start off with a mark of]52, and Epee Du Hua has never gone higher.