In the David and Goliath match up of the Lenovo Plate (1,200m) it was popular trainer Derek Cruz who tipped over the "big shots" with his bargain basement griffin Flying Colours.Part of a dream day for recently arrived jockey Mark du Plessis, who landed the opening three races, Flying Colours led throughout to win the griffin event in defiance of his pedigree and it was no surprise to Cruz but might have been to any punters using the sales prices as a form guide.
The nine runner event included some expensive purchases from the Jockey Club's own sale - including runner-up Big Winner Again who cost HK$4 million and third-placed Hannah King Prawn, a HK$2.9 million sales graduate - but none of that fazed Flying Colours who had cost a mere NZ$7,250 as a yearling at the New Zealand Festival Sale - or about HK$44,000 in Nathan Road.
It was a rare victory for Cruz who has only infrequent griffin runners, preferring to take more time with his young horses, but Flying Colours had sent him all the right messages in training along the way to yesterday's debut win.
"He's a promising young horse but I didn't really expect him to be a two-year-old," Cruz said.
"He is very much still learning. However, everything I asked him to do, he did and kept improving. He started to pick up in trackwork so I took him to the stalls test to get that out of the way and he did everything right. So I thought we'll take him to the trials and see how he goes, and he had trialled quite well the first time and better the second time, so I said to the owners we should take him to the races."
And with good support at HK$66 coming off his second trialling over 1,000m against older horses, Flying Colours certainly didn't go unbacked, despite Cruz's view that all the best is ahead. "The horse has a great attitude and I expected him to run well today but whatever he is doing now, he's only going to improve on as he matures," Cruz said.
"He'll have another run or maybe two this season, and I'm looking forward to next year - it's nice to have something like Flying Colours to work with."
It was fitting reward for the patience of Flying Colours' ownership, the RAA Fraternity Syndicate, which has battled on manfully, despite the long term maiden status of their current horse Flying Profile.
