Winless for more than two years, Taking Aim completed a long, eventful trek from the brink of enforced retirement to Sha Tin’s winners’ stall after the Australian import trounced his rivals in the Class 3 Devon Handicap on Saturday.
Placed only once in 17 starts since the end of the 2018/19 season, the Choisir gelding badly injured his nearside hock in a float mishap two years ago and, if not for the persistence of owner Edwin Cheung, the chestnut almost certainly would have been retired.
Taking Aim wins easily
“He got badly injured in the float on the way up to Conghua and he had to have a major operation,” Whyte said after posting a double to share training honours with Benno Yung.
“He messed up his whole hock. It looked like he would have to be retired but the owner took the initiative and decided on the operation. Paul Robinson (Club veterinarian) has done an amazing job in get him back.”
The trauma was also part psychological, limiting Whyte to campaigning the six-year-old almost exclusively at Sha Tin because of a feared aversion to floats.
The former champion jockey has sent the sprinter only once to Happy Valley because of concerns over how the horse will react in a float.
“He goes into a float ok, but you don’t know what will happen after that. Even the one run, when I took him to Happy Valley (23 December, 2020), I had to get a special trailer for him to take him there because he’s obviously a bit pedantic about being in a float,” Whyte said after watching apprentice Jerry Chau cruise to a three-length win on the patched-up gelding.
“We’re fortunate we can still get him in the gates. We’ve done a lot of work with him. It looks like he’s got his confidence back.
“It’s a gamble when he’s in the float. Memory is a great thing. If something goes wrong, it could be worse than a hock.
“It’s taken me a lot of time to get the confidence to put him in a float and getting him going around and, by doing that, it might have got him over a couple of hurdles.”
Gr1-placed in the 2017 J. J. Atkins (1600m) behind Capital Gain, Taking Aim also ran second to champion Kiwi Melody Belle in the G2 BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) in the same season for Peter and Paul Snowden before he was exported to Hong Kong.
Dougie Whyte gives Taking Aim a bit of love
“We know he can deliver and he showed me at home he could deliver that – he just needed things to go his way,” Whyte said. “He’s been running well over shorter distances. Today, he stepped up as a fit horse and he dominated.”
Enhancing his 2020/21 haul to 21 wins, Whyte lauded Carroll Street’s growing maturity after the pint-sized gelding scored in the Class 3 Cornwall Handicap (1000m) for Vincent Ho.
“When he came, he was tiny. He’s grown substantially but he still looks small. Besides a growth spurt, mentally he’s gone through changes,” Whyte said of the Outreach gelding, who travelled to Hong Kong as an unraced prospect in April.
“He’s come from the bush and hit Hong Kong city and gone ‘wow’ but he’s one of those who’s got incrementally better each time and it’s a lot to do with Conghua.
“He had a substantial amount of mucus (after his last start) and I’ve given him time to get over that up at Conghua and he’s come back in good health. He returned a better horse, mentally.
“It’s a big relief. More than anything, I think he’s appreciated a bit of time off.”
Hong Kong racing continues at Happy Valley on Wednesday, 21 April.
