Precision 'beaten fair and square'
Derby runner-up Precision caused the stir of the race when he burst out of the starting gates just moments before the off but neither trainer David Oughton nor jockey Michael Kinane was using it as an excuse.
'I'd love to say that was the reason he was beaten,' Oughton said as the crowd greeted the winner, Olympic Express, and Weichong Marwing punched the air in triumph. 'But it was a harmless enough incident. The horse ran very, very well but the truth is the winner was just too good on the day.'
Kinane said that Precision had not done himself any harm when he broke through, going only a few metres before he was able to rein him up. 'It's something that you'd prefer not to have happen, of course, but it didn't make much of a difference. I had a good run and it was a very good effort but maybe he would have done better if there was more speed on. A true gallop would have suited him.'
The trainer of third-placed outsider Dashing Winner, Peter Ng Bik-kuen, had a hard-luck story of sorts after his gelding's surprisingly stout effort. 'A couple of races ago, Dashing Express got a high temperature and I had to scratch him from a race just at the time when I had been planning to step him up from 1,400 metres to 1,600 metres,' said Ng.
'He had to miss some work and that put me back to square one. I switched him back to 1,000 metres and he came out and won again, then he ran into another problem at his last start. He was kicked by another runner when he ran second over 1,200 metres here and he had to miss three days because he had an injection and had fluid drained from the leg.
'So my plan was upset and he missed a 1,600-metre race leading into this. I was always confident he would handle the 2,000 metres on his breeding, but when you consider he hasn't been able to have a race beyond 1,400 metres, I think he would have done even better with the right lead-up preparation.'
Wendyll Woods, who rode Dashing Winner, said: 'He met a little interference and was a bit too keen at times but he finished off very well as you could see. When he learns to settle, he is going to be some horse.'
Olivier Doleuze rode the winner's stablemate, Aucash, who finished sixth. 'He travelled behind the winner in the early part of the race but he pulled and he got tired,' explained Doleuze.
David Hayes, who saddled up Super Molly (seventh) and Danamite (eighth), said: 'Super Molly pulled all the way and didn't stay, but still ran a decent race on heart. But Danamite's preparation for the race was difficult and it told. I couldn't gallop him fast and he lacked fitness when it mattered. We might switch him back to the Champions Mile next time because it's always going to be hard to get him properly ready for 2,000 metres.'
Frenchman Eric Legrix, who finished 11th on Magical Warrior, wasn't too discouraged. 'He didn't have much luck on the home bend and lost some momentum there but he finished the race nicely,' said Legrix.
Jeune King Prawn's trainer, Ricky Yiu Poon-fie, said his horse, who finished 13th, was found out by the distance. 'We had to try it because he will only ever have the chance to run in one Derby but in future he will stick to the 1,600 metres races,' added Yiu.
Douglas Whyte gave a similar excuse for Cape Of Good Hope, who came home last. 'He didn't see out the trip,' Whyte said.
'I'd love to say that was the reason he was beaten'
