Paul O'Sullivan's Aashiq may lack something in sheer quality on many of those who chased him home in the Prince Jewellery & Watch Premier Cup yesterday, but when the dust cleared after the final Group event of the season, he was the one runner who had been targeted for that race.
Having his first start for more than three months and returning from a second heart irregularity, Aashiq (Mark du Plessis) was allowed the luxury of rolling along alone in front, the circumstances that always make the six-year- old tough to run down. Under 114 pounds, the gelding did what was expected and held off the Group One stars to win his second black type handicap for the term.
'He is not a horse who can beat the best in the Group One races but he's got his share of talent and these handicaps are what he needs to even things up - a classic horse of the Hong Kong system, you could say. He's won a couple of these now and done a great job for a cheap horse,' said O'Sullivan. 'I looked at this race for Aashiq quite a while ago. You know you're going to run into some of the good ones but it's their last run for the season and my bloke was coming back from a spell.'
But Aashiq's preparation had to be handled 'just so' to make sure he was at his best for the race.
'First-up isn't his best run, but his second-up run is usually very good,' O'Sullivan said. 'So I gave him two barrier trials and made sure the second one was pretty serious, so it was like a first-up run. He's done everything right coming into the race and when they didn't take him on, I was pretty happy in the run.'
Top trainer John Moore sent out half the field in the race, including a one-dimensional leader in Leading City, so getting his own way was not assured for Du Plessis, but getting the rail probably was and the jockey believes that to be key.