By Alan Carasso
Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum's Ertijaal (Aus) (Hard Spun) took to the Sha Tin turf course Tuesday morning, stretching out smartly as he continues to impress ahead of Sunday's G1 Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup.
A day after closing off a 1200-metre gallop with an ultimate quarter-mile in :25 flat, the G1 Cape Derby winner was asked for a bit more this time around with big-race rider Douglas Whyte in the irons, capping off his move with a final 400 metres in a solid :23.7.
Commented Trevor Brown, assistant to trainer Mike de Kock, “All good. We were very happy with the gallop this morning, and Dougie came back quite pleased with that too. He is all settled into his new surroundings without issue.”
Ertijaal, who is exiting a running-on fourth-place effort behind Japan's Real Steel (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in the G1 Dubai Turf Mar. 26, the same race in which the De Kock-trained Archipenko (Kingmambo) finished third in 2008 before heading to Hong Kong for a 13-1 upset of that year's QE II. Irridescence (SAf) (Caesour) gave the de Kock barn a first QE II success two years prior.
Whyte, a perennial leading rider in Hong Kong before the arrival of the likes of Zac Purton and Joao Moreira, picked up the mount on Ertijaal at Meydan when jockey Dane O'Neill was injured in an earlier race.
“Mike and I go back a long way,” Whyte explained. “He was assistant to Ricky Ginsberg and when Ricky Ginsberg passed away, Mike took over his yard and has never looked back. I used to ride quite a bit for him. He was in the same class [at school] as my sister.”
The “Durban Demon” is already a three-time winner of the QE II, most recently guiding Ambitious Dragon (NZ) (Pins {Aus}) to a 3/4-length triumph over California Memory (Highest Honor {Fr}) in 2011.
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