A fine debut season for Chad Schofield has had one glaring issue – his record in the stewards’ room – and the young Australian rider won a race but still finished in the deficit column at Sha Tin yesterday after a double careless riding ban. Schofield’s suspensions came from incidents where he caused interference in the ninth and 11th races, either side of his win on Mr Bogart, and for each incident he took away a three-day ban and a HK$70,000 fine in lieu of two more days. The first ban will take him out of the final three meetings this season, while the second will sideline him for the first three meetings of next season, and the HK$140,000 handover more than wiped out his percentage for Mr Bogart. That leaves Schofield with 32 wins this term, still three shy of his target, and he has only the next two cards in which to reach that. Alan Aitken
Champion New Zealand jockey Opie Bosson finally strikes in Hong Kong
It took 62 rides and a handful of frustrating results, including two second placings on his first day at Sha Tin, but champion Kiwi rider Opie Bosson finally found the winner’s circle in Hong Kong after Horse Supremo led all the way to win on dirt yesterday. “It was less excitement and more relief,” Bosson said after steering Tony Millard’s Horse Supremo to a half-length victory. “The horse had enough gate speed to lead and was quite easy to ride, but I definitely was willing him home late – I wanted that win.” Bosson stood in for an absent Millard, offering his gratitude to the South African handler for the opportunities he has been given. “Tony has been a supporter since I arrived, he is good friends with Marcus Corban, who I know quite well, and that might be a reason why,” he said. “I managed to run second on a 100-1 shot, Gorgeous King, for him recently, and hopefully there are more chances to ride for him.” Andrew Hawkins
Dancing Flames set for gelding operation in off-season despite strong win
When Danny Shum Chap-shing first saw Dancing Flames work, he didn’t expect it would take 10 starts into a long first season preparation for the three-year-old to find his way into Class Three. A convincing debut win in a griffin race only added to Shum’s assessment that the sprinter was bound for bigger things, but after a Class Four win with top weight the trainer believes an off-season gelding operation might be the key to further improvement. “I will talk to the owner, but my suggestion is that he be gelded, the horse thinks a bit too much and is quite heavy,” he said. Joao Moreira was back on after missing the start badly as favourite last time, an incident he put down at least in part to Dancing Flames still being an entire. “He was moving his head around, and I agree with Danny, he thinks a bit too much and an operation would probably help him,” Moreira said. Michael Cox
