River Jetez, a daughter of Jet Master, River Jetez may be seven but is getting better with age.
“Her connections wanted to see how good she was by going overseas but Mike Bass didn’t want to take her himself – it’s a pretty tough thing to do a whole season away with one horse when you have a big team to look after at home,’’ Jell said. “He did the same thing with Sun Classique who won the Sheema Classic with us. So this mare came to us when some of our other Dubai horses were already in quarantine in August. She’s done very well and comes here in great form.’’
Whether that will translate into a win in the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup on Sunday has yet to be decided. De Kock has a great record in the race with two wins and two seconds from a limited number of raids, but Jell’s confidence seems about the same as it was before Lizard’s Desire ran second a year ago.
River Jetez draws well for QEII Cup
“It isn’t easy travelling horses and winning these races. I think sometimes people don’t realise what the horses have to come through to win them. This mare did 114 days of quarantine in South Africa, England and then Dubai before she even had a race over there,’’ he said. “We are hopeful but there’s always some local horse who is tough to beat.
“Old Viva Pataca seems to come good this time every year and run well and Tony Millard says his horse Ambitious Dragon is pretty good. But River Jetez is going well enough to run well and if she comes out of it all right then she’ll go on to Singapore.’’
River Jetez will be ridden by Bernard Fayd’Herbe and drew well at No 2, a huge advantage over 2000m at Sha Tin because, in the words of jockey Darren Beadman “ the first turn comes so early’’.
Australian jockey Damien Oliver will take the place of injured Glyn Schofield on board highly credentialed Gitano Hernando, who will be saddled by Herman Brown jun.
Brown felt No 6 draw was perfect for Gitano Hernando, who makes his debut for the stable.
“It means we won’t be tight on the rail and we don’t have to do one thing or the other. We can go either forward or back according to how the race is run. I’m very, very happy with that.’’
Brown supervised the horse’s work yesterday and commented afterwards: “He’s still fit from the Dubai World Cup and it’s just a matter of getting a bit of speed into him so we might do a sprint tomorrow just to sharpen him up.
“A true run race on Sunday will suit him because I don’t think he has any stamina doubts. The track looks in really good condition, with a good covering of grass that should mean a bit of give, which will be in his favour. But if it rains between now and then I don’t think he’d mind that either. His last few runs have been on synthetic but I don’t think he’ll have any trouble adapting again to the turf.’’
Tony Millard’s Hong Kong Derby winner Ambition Dragon is favourite but drew wide at No 12. – South China Morning Post-Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Coral’s betting: 2-1 AMBITIOUS DRAGON, 4-1 WIGMORE HALL, 9-2 RIVER JETEZ, 6-1 CALIFORNIA MEMORY, 9-1 GITANO HERNANDO, 12-1 IRIAN, 16-1 MIGHTY HIGH, 20-1 VIVA PATACA, 33-1 AND UPWARDS OTHERS.
