Anger as racing great Viva Pataca languishes in 'dungeon-like' Macau stable
Calls to move HK's top stakes earner, owned by Stanley Ho, to greener pastures
As other champions like the record-breaking Silent Witness live out their final years in plush overseas retirement facilities, the horse that won the most money in Hong Kong racing history is being kept in "dungeon-like" conditions in a stable at the Macau Jockey Club, according to people who have visited him.
Owned by 93-year-old tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun, the gelding won over HK$83 million before retiring, aged nine, in 2011.
John Moore, who trained Viva Pataca, said it was time for the horse to be sent to a farm for retired champions. "He's spent long enough in a stable in Macau and deserves a paddock where he can live out the rest of his life with grass up to his knees," he said.
Archie da Silva - owner of Silent Witness, which was retired to Australia in 2007 - said: "It's a joke, it's disgusting. A champion like Viva Pataca should be retired to a nice home in Australia or the UK where it can live out its days in peace and quiet."
Chris Riggs, the Hong Kong Jockey Club's head of veterinary clinical services, said it was up to the owners to do the honourable thing and look after a horse in retirement.
Repeated requests by the to the Macau Jockey Club to visit the horse were rejected. A spokesman said Viva Pataca's daily schedule involved "paddock and hand walk", without giving more details.
Bill Nader, executive director of racing at the HKJC, said the club recently became aware that Viva Pataca was in Macau but had no idea why it had returned from New Zealand, where it had been sent immediately after its retirement. Nader said Viva Pataca's situation, for a horse of its calibre, was not "a conventional retirement".
Viva Pataca made his Sha Tin debut on January 1, 2006. He won 13 of 44 starts, making HK$83,197,500 in prize money.
