South African David Ferraris has beaten an elite field, including leaders of the training profession from all over the world, to become the newest expatriate racehorse trainer in Hong Kong.

  Ferraris, 39, is currently engaged in a race with Geoff Woodruff to become South Africa's champion trainer for the fifth time and on Saturday he'll be attempting to win the second leg of the local three-year-old triple crown with Surveyor, a horse he describes as "the best miler in South Africa".

  Ferraris was told by Kim Kelly, chairman of the Hong Kong Jockey Club's licensing committee, early on Tuesday yesterday morning. It was the phone call he'd been longing to receive.

  "Winning another trainer's championship in South Africa is important to me, but Hong Kong comes first," Ferraris said yesterday.

  "I'm very grateful to the Jockey Club for giving me a second chance. I must admit, having knocked back the chance of a position two years ago, it wasn't one I thought I'd get."

  Ferraris will be bringing the reasons for his refusal two years ago to Hong Kong with him - wife Pam and 18-month-old Luke. "Pam was pregnant with Luke at the time and that was the only reason we couldn't proceed with the application," he explained. The couple also has a four-year-old daughter, Caroline.

  "John Size got the job that year, and I keep looking at the (HK) Jockey Club's website and I see John's horses have won over $60 million this season. Given the prizemoney levels in South Africa, we just cannot believe those sorts of figures. Hong Kong racing is just in a class of its own."

  With figures not including last weekend, Ferraris has trained 125 winners this season from 636 runners, at the highly credible success rate of 19.65 per cent. He's 28 wins ahead of Woodruff but is trailing him by a mere R.15,000 on the prizemoney table, with the stable having earned R.5.88 million for the current season (which ends July 31).

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  Among the international trainers who are understood to have been considered for the position were New Zealander Laurie Laxon (now based in Singapore). Laxon has trained a Hong Kong Cup winner (1990, Romanee Conti) and a Melbourne Cup winner Empire Rose (1988) and last year finished second on the Singapore trainers' premiership.

  His conqueror on that occasion, winning the Singapore title for a sixth time, was Malcolm Thwaites, and he too was given close consideration by the licensing committee.

  Jockey Club sources suggest that age was ultimately the factor that went against both Laxon and Thwaites, as both are in their late 50s and expatriate trainers in Hong Kong must stand down at age 60 unless they meet specific performance criteria, in which case their licence may be extended until age 65.

  The licensing committee is said to have decided that putting any trainer into Hong Kong, when in their late 50s, puts an unreasonable timeframe on them to achieve top-class results before they turn 60.

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  The Hong Kong Jockey Club left no stone unturned in its bid to be satisfied of the credentials of South African David Ferraris.  At the end of a long period of research, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the Club's director of racing, described Ferraris' record in South Africa as "top class".

  "We went to the extra trouble of having (former chief steward) John Schreck travel to South Africa recently, to look at the Ferraris operation first hand and see the trainer in his own environment," Engelbrecht-Bresges said. "This is the first time we have done this - mainly because we feel that we have sufficient feel for places like Europe and Australia and are well equipped to assess trainers from there.

 "We feel that with Tony Millard already here and now David Ferraris, that there will be greater opportunities for our owners to access horses from that part of the world," he added.
  

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  Hong Kong is not normally the place to find regally-bred, classic-winning fillies. But in this rapidly changing world, the valuable Asian classics are now being eyed more regularly by astute owners and breeders --- Elegant Fashion's Hong Kong Derby win last Sunday may begin a stronger trend.

  The Derby heroine has a pedigree to back up her phenomenal racetrack deeds.  Not only is she a daughter of five-time Australian Group One winner Danewin, but she's out of the daughter of 1974 English 1000 Guineas winner Highclere (GB), a grand filly whose owner was none other than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

  Highclere's most famous daughter was the multiple Group Two winner Height of Fashion (Fr), who was so well regarded that Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum made a fabulously high, undisclosed but successful bid to buy her off the Queen in the early 1980s.

  Whatever Height of Fashion might have cost Sheikh Hamdan, she returned the investment many times over by producing for him the great Nashwan [Blushing Groom] who was Europe's top three-year-old in 1989 before becoming a successful sire for the owner's Shadwell Farm. The mare also threw successful stayer turned sire Unfuwain to a mating with Northern Dancer.

  One of Highclere's non-winning daughters was the placegetter Wily Trick (USA), who was acquired by Sheikh Hamdan's close friend His Excellency Nasser Lootah for his Emirates Park Stud in New South Wales, Australia.

  Emirates Park is the farm which stands Danewin, a classic winner from the first southern hemisphere crop of champion sire Danehill.

  Danewin has beaten the scourge of sub-fertility and, together with Wily Trick,  has now produced one of the most noteworthy dual-hemisphere Group winners of the modern era, Elegant Fashion, whose value on the open bloodstock market would be over $5 million.

  Incidentally, there was a New Zealand connection to the Derby win because Elegant Fashion was selected as a yearling on behalf of owner Dr Gene Tsoi by Marcus Corban, better known as the manager of Sir Patrick and Lady Justine Hogan’s Cambridge Stud.

  Elegant Fashion won four races from the Tony McEvoy stable in Australia, including the autumn triple crown for fillies last year, as well as finishing second to Republic Lass in the Group One AJC Australian Oaks.

  She was trained for her Hong Kong classic success by David Hayes and was ridden by Frenchman Gerald Mosse.

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  Just having Frankie Dettori in town for the Hong Kong Derby meeting helped make “Super Sunday” even more special.

  The Italian superstar, who had ridden in Dubai on Thursday night, jetted in to Hong Kong on Saturday evening at 5pm and rode in great form at the Derby meeting, with his best effort being second on Firebolt, behind Grand Delight, in the Group One Centenary Sprint Cup (1000m).

  Dettori held an impromptu press conference after the last race before departing for an early dinner with friends, from which he was driven to Chek Lap Kok airport for the midnight flight back to Dubai.

  “This way you never get jetlag,” a beaming Dettori advised.

  The retained jockey for the world’s biggest stable, Godolphin, will now ride at the his mount in Saturday’s US$6 million Dubai World Cup.

  “Which ever one Sheikh Mohammed or (trainer) Saeed bin Suroor chooses for me will be fine,” Dettori said. “They have a very good handle on it, I know I can trust their judgment.”

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  Elegant Fashion wasn’t the only filly taking a stick to the colts in a classic race last weekend. In Sydney on Saturday night, Marscay filly Fine Society made her elevation to racing’s most elite club when she easily took out the Group One Canterbury Guineas (1,900m).

  Like Elegant Fashion, Fine Society was the only filly in the Guineas field and she treated her rivals with similar disdain, shooting to the front at the 200 metres and drawing clear to defeat stablemate Beaver by two-and-a-quarter lengths, with Victoria Derby runner-up Hydrometer a close third.

  Trainer John Hawkes said Fine Society had pulled up well on Sunday morning and would head to the Rosehill Guineas (2,000m) on Saturday week.

  Two fillies in the modern era – Spirit of Kingston (by Bletchingly) in 1985 and Riverina Charm (Sir Tristram) in 1989 – have won both Canterbury-Rosehill Guineas double.

  Fine Society is raced by Hong Kong businessman William Choy, who could not possibly be avoiding thoughts of emulating Elegant Fashion at this time next year.

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  This is the quiet time of the year in Singapore, with racing taking place only on the fibresand circuit while the course proper is groomed to be in perfect shape for the Singapore Airlines International Cup meeting in May.

  This week, the Singapore Turf Club made two licensing announcements, the first being a further extension for New Zealander Grant Cooksley.

  The 41-year-old, who has been riding in devastating form all season, with the highlight being his pair of Group Ones on 2002 Horse of the Year Smart Bet in the Raffles Cup (1800m) and Singapore Golod Cup.

    At the same time, the Turf Club has granted a license, effective from April 31, to 34-year-old Gary Hind, who has previously ridden in Europe, America, Australia, Macau and the UAE.

  The Englishman, who has more than 600 career wins to his credit, is currently the number one jockey to His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in Dubai and is  presently leading the Dubai Jockeys' Premiership with 32 winners.

  Among his 16 Group wins have been the 1996 Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster (UK), the Dubai “triple crown” races of 1994 and 1996, the Emir's Cup in Bahrain (2001) and the 2003 National Day Cup in Dubai.