'Bleeders' given leeway
Horses with internal bleeding problems will be given an extra "strike" before facing compulsory retirement.

Timing-racing
The barrier trials at the pre-season carnival at Happy Valley tomorrow will see a small piece of history being made, with the Jockey Club taking welcome but long overdue responsibility for the accuracy of trial results.

Sacred Kingdom gets off to a shaky start
Champion Sacred Kingdom was unimpressive on the track and then failed to gain a veterinary clearance for his first venture overseas in a day of unexpected pre-season drama at Sha Tin yesterday.

Revamp aims to please the punters
The new racing season will feature important changes to the place-betting and dead-heat calculations along with the new Flexi Bet format, the Jockey Club confirmed yesterday.

Boss turns his back on contract for new season
Australian jockey Glen Boss has flagged the first shock of the new season, yesterday advising the Jockey Club he will not return as a club rider for the 2008-09 term.

A vision for tomorrow
One club, one team, one vision." That was the motto that heralded the arrival of Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges as chief executive officer of the Jockey Club in February last year and it promises to serve the industry equally well as the club arranges its goals and priorities for next season.

Stipes busier than ever
Drug rules stood out in 2006-07, but matters of regulation were dominated this season by suspensions and fines for jockeys. The stipes were busier than a one-armed, one-legged wallpaper hanger.

HK stars rank with the best - but struggle overseas
One would expect that a season when Hong Kong-trained horses headed two separate world ranking brackets simultaneously had been a boom year internationally.

International sale graduates turning into great money spinners
If there's such a thing as a horse sale being too healthy or too successful, then the Hong Kong International Sale probably fits that description after a year when the boutique market went gangbusters.

Whyte proves once again he's untouchable
After the titanic struggle of last year, the jockeys' championship was back to a one-horse race, with Douglas Whyte dominant from the jump and filling his pockets with records.

Size and Moore have season to remember
John Size wrested back the premiership which has become almost his personal domain, but the historical high note for the 2007-08 season was his compatriot John Moore becoming the first professional of either discipline to train 1,000 winners.

Tsui is man of the year
The numbers show he finished third on the trainers' ladder, but for what he achieved and the class of cattle he achieved it with, Me Tsui Yu-sak is our trainer of the year.

Beadman gamble pays off handsomely
While the championship ladder ended with a familiar look about it, this was a season when the Jockey Club licensing committee took a couple of risks in the riding roster and emerged looking all the bolder for having taken them.

Club retains hope on overseas bets
The Jockey Club will make another approach to government on the commingling of foreign investments into local pools - the "biggest potential growth area".

Season ending bonanza for Club as Prebble scores winning treble
Bill Nader was crying "show me the money" early in the evening at Happy Valley and the horse players of Hong Kong, somehow hearing him, piled it on until the counter stopped at an astonishing HK$912 million...

Dirt champ Curlin gets taste of turf and eyes the Arc
Jockey Robby Albarado admitted he was nervous as he guided reigning Horse of the Year Curlin out to the turf course at Churchill Downs for arguably the most important training session of the four-year-old colt's career.

Ba Ba award is icing on cake for Schutz
Outstanding miler Good Ba Ba gave German trainer Andreas Schutz one of the greatest thrills of his successful career when he was crowned Horse of the Year at the champion awards ceremony during the season's Sha Tin finale yesterday.

Whyte signs off in style with four-timer
The stars were out in force at yesterday's Sha Tin season finale but it Douglas Whyte, the champion jockey for the eighth successive season, who emerged the biggest winner in landing a celebratory four-timer.

Danesis proves highlight of big day for Coetzee
Felix Coetzee finished his Sha Tin season with a flourish, landing a powerful three-timer that included the breakthrough win of a long-time loser and capturing a HK$1 million bonus with Danesis for his former retaining trainer Tony Cruz.

Prebble's new partnerships 'going great'
Brett Prebble will go to his summer pasture as runner-up to Douglas Whyte for a third successive season, but a double for local handler Dennis Yip Chor-hong yesterday saw the Australian pause to momentarily ponder a possible future victory over dominating Durban Demon.

Slight drop in turnover
A late scratching, the lack of a Triple Trio jackpot and the psychological presence of tomorrow night's added Happy Valley meeting combined to see yesterday's season-finale figures at Sha Tin come in lower than a year ago.

Excellent Boy gets his head together after stable drama
Excellent Boy gave the Caspar Fownes stable a late-season highlight in the final Sha Tin race for the season yesterday and the wonder was not so much that he won, but that he made the race at all.

While Curlin's Asmussen spices up drug saga, Dutrow says breach no big deal
America's racing drug scandal continues to get juicier.
Steve Asmussen, who trains the 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin, is the latest trainer who is set to be grilled by Texas racing officials after one of his horses...