Thank you, Mr. Engelbrecht-Bresges

[my miss storm cat]

... for continuing to be the human spokesman for the aging champion, Good Ba Ba.

Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges continues to voice his dimay and disgust at the way in which this very fine horse is handled. I applaud his outspokeness, his humanity and the fact that really... he does not have to act as the conscience for the masses but does and does so willingly and enthusiastically.

For anyone who doesn't know multiple G1 winner Good Ba Ba, who was Horse of the Year, was given a champions farewell at Sha Tin once retired.

Look at his record and please note the ridiculous number of trainer changes... kinda a lot of jockey changes too.

http://www.hkjc.com/english/racing/O...=E201&search=1

So as in mentioned throughout many HK threads he was retired, brought to Macau where it was discovered he was back in training.

He was there for over a year and did NOT race and many believe this is due to the public outcry of which Mr.Engelbrecht-Bresges had the loudest voice.

... and now he's in Austrailia, in "light" training.

The shall we say "colorful" Mr. John Yuen does, of course, own the horse but again, look at his record and you can see where the brilliant part ends and the other begins... the part where he begins to struggle.

Shame on him.

[my miss storm cat]

I miss Murray Bell on the South China Morning Post sooooo much (he was such a nice man. You wouldn't believe the questions he would answer and this pictures he'd send) BUT hooray for this writer, Mr. Cox.

This is a little on the idiot owner of Good Ba Ba and he sure interjects some comedy.

http://racing.scmp.com/freeservice/n...20121011aa.asp

Yuen went away from his usual imaginative prefix for his horse names - "Good" - when he named Thunder General - a gelding by Indian Charlie he purchased for a whopping HK$5 million at the Hong Kong International Sale this year. Buying an "ISG" is a sure-fire, but exceedingly expensive, way to jump the queue into the highly sought-after ownership ranks and Good Ba Ba is by far the best-performed graduate in the sales' history.

But even with that previous success, and by Yuen's behaviour at the 2012 auction was bizarre. The 26 horses for this year's ISG were paraded for potential buyers before being paired-up and given exhibition gallops at Sha Tin a week before the sale, and this is when lot 10, a handsome three-year-old by Indian Charlie, showed a sign of things to come.

Whether it was a lack of willingness or co-ordination, or a bit of both, his action was awful and he couldn't keep up. Tectonic plates move faster than Thunder General did that day and most observers were keen to see who, or if anyone, would put their hand up to buy the slow coach.

Come the big day, Yuen didn't put his hand up, as such, or even have a rival bidder, but stunned everyone when he held up a piece of paper with $5 million written on it.

Thunder General produced an accordingly amazing performance in his first trial - amazing because it doesn't seem possible to be beaten more than 65 lengths in an 800m contest while actually galloping in the right direction.

But Danny Shum Chap-shing is obviously a talented trainer, and he improved the gelding next time out, as he was beaten just 41 lengths. Tuesday's effort might end the current tenure with the trainer though - he was beaten by a new personal best 89 3/4 lengths, and was moving so slowly that by the end of it the theme from Chariots Of Fire started playing in the background.

A good read on the "already despised owner".

And i thought the Macau zillionaire who owned all the Viva horses was insane!

Poor Good Ba Ba. Hopefully someone steps in and offeres a fortune and then sends him to Living Legends (cough, cough Mr. Wong Wing, the overly kind owner of Bullish Luck perhaps?).

Oh well it never hurts to wish for such happy endings.

[my miss storm cat]

... and now word is that Viva Pataca has been unretired and is in HK's garbage can... ooops I mean Macau?

Dear Sir, kindly save both of them.

[my miss storm cat]

Dr. Yuen = Greed.

http://www.racenet.com.au/news/86587...for-Good-Ba-Ba

[my miss storm cat]

http://www.racingandsports.com.au/ra...asp?NID=272536

[my miss storm cat]

RETIRED.