Happy Lucky Dragon Win | Master Size with an appropriate winner to bring up a milestone

There are far bigger races on the calendar than the Lion City Handicap – a mixed ratings band 1,400m race to close the day on Sunday at Sha Tin – but there may not have been a more appropriate race for “the master”, John Size, to bring up a milestone of 800 Hong Kong wins, given the elements of patience, planning and overall horsemanship the result required.

Once loaded into the gates and having jumped on terms, winning was the easy part for Mirage – a barrier rogue with what jockey Tye Angland described as “a hair trigger” and a propensity to lose it at the sight of starting gates on raceday.

Angland had to utilise his bull riding skills last time Mirage had been to the races late last year, the chestnut with the flaxen mane and tail turning on a tantrum and nearly throwing himself to the ground as the Australian jockey completed a dramatic dismount and landed on his feet.

That was D-day if the horse was to compete in the HK$6 million Hong Kong Classic Mile the following month – a race with first prizemoney far less than what owner Larry Yung Chi-kin would have paid for the exciting sprinter out of Australia.

Despite the pressure and expectation – that’s the race the horse was purchased for after all – Size scrapped any immediate plans for Mirage and went back to school, nursing the horse through a thorough re-education process.