Rocket Man likely to be shorter price in Hong Kong Sprint

Singaporean sensation ROCKET MAN (Viscount) was unbelievably dismissed at

17-1 for the Jockey Club Sprint (HK-G2) November 21 and made those doubters pay,

sharing the spoils with the locally based ONE WORLD (Danehill Dancer). Some have

questioned whether trainer Patrick Shaw has asked enough of the gelding in the

couple of weeks since that effort, but Felix Coetzee, who was aboard for the

victory and has the call this weekend in the Hong Kong Sprint (HK-G1), is not

the least bit concerned.

"All I can say is, if people are saying he hasn't done a lot of work, then

they aren't watching closely enough," the South African told South China

Morning Post. "I would say that, among the jockeys, I would be one of the

hardest markers on fitness, and I have no complaints at all with Rocket Man's

level of fitness. He is very fit and doesn't need a really strong gallop between

now and Sunday, but he probably will have a sharp hit-out."

A winner of 12 of his 15 career outings, the Dubai Golden Shaheen (UAE-G1)

runner-up was having his first run around a right-handed bend in the Jockey Club

Sprint, and, according to Coetzee, has become increasingly comfortable traveling

that way.

"I'm happy with him as far as the turn goes, I think he is better now than he

was in that race," he said.

Coetzee is a two-time winner of the Hong Kong Sprint, having guided the

legendary Silent Witness to titles in 2003 and 2004.

Australia's lone entrant in this year's races is Sprint candidate ORTENSIA (Testa

Rossa), and she's already had an eventful stay in Hong Kong. Last Thursday, in

visiting Sha Tin for the first time, the five-year-old mare was spooked by a cat

on the track and threw exercise rider Jake Noonan, son of trainer Tony Noonan.

She proceeded to crash through two running rails, but suffered nothing more than

superficial cuts and scrapes.

"Took some bark (skin) off as we say. We had the (veterinarian) go over her

and she's fine," Tony Noonan said of the winner of the Galaxy S. (Aus-G1) in

April. "We were able to give her a serious workout on Sunday morning, and she

worked soundly and she feels sound. Young Jake said she's moving better than she

ever has, and she looks great so I don't have any great misgivings about the

mishap leading into the race. But it is a miracle she wasn't badly hurt."

It's not the first time Ortensia has been faced with overcoming adversity in

her career.

"You could say she's now had three lives," Noonan continued. "She had a blood

clot in a tendon sheath after she won the One Thousand Guineas Prelude at

Caulfield as a three-year-old. Fortunately the vet picked it up and she

recovered well, but if we'd left it another 24 hours who knows what might have

happened. Then last year, after she won the Winterbottom S. (Aus-G2) in Perth,

she contracted laminitis. We had to ice her feet every three hours for 10 days,

and she got through that as well. She really is quite amazing."

Ortensia exits a solid third-place effort in the Patinack Farm Classic

(Aus-G1) at Flemington November 6 and will be ridden this weekend by Craig

Williams.

PACO BOY (Ire) (Desert Style), most recently fourth to Goldikova (Ire) (Anabaa)

in the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1) November 7, is the highest-rated horse at this

year's meeting, but the Hong Kong Mile (HK-G1) entrant is at the end of a long

and testing season and hasn't looked all that comfortable in the unseasonably

warm Hong Kong air. The five-year-old was singing a different tune Tuesday

morning, however, as he went through his paces under his regular rider, Elvis

Singh, who gave traveling head lad Tony Gorman a big thumbs up after completing

his canter.

"He is really well, in super form," Gorman commented. "I'm confident if he

runs the race he did in America he will take some beating. This track should be

better for him than Churchill Downs. He has one hell of a turn of foot as he

showed in America, but couldn't make up the ground in the short straight there."

Stanley Ho Hung Sun's VIVA PATACA (Marju) makes an appearance at the

International Races for the fifth consecutive year, but is still in search of a

first success on the big day. His best finish was a runner-up effort to

Godolphin's Ramonti when the 3-10 favorite in 2007 in the Hong Kong Cup (HK-G1)

over 2000 meters, but at age eight, he seems better suited by the 2400 meters of

the Vase (HK-G1), a race in which he was a midpack sixth last year behind

Daryakana (Selkirk). The bay gelding is coming off a deceptively strong fifth in

the November 21 Jockey Club Mile (HK-G2) over a trip well short of his best and

seems to have come on for the effort.

"Viva's still got a spring in his step and he's going round like a

three-year-old," his jockey Darren Beadman explained. "We would have liked to

get one more run into him (his preparation was held up by a shoe boil). But he's

in very good form and we'll be in there doing our best. (Melbourne Cup [Aus-G1]

winner) AMERICAIN (Dynaformer) looks as though he'll be very hard to beat, but I

think the ground might be a problem for him."