RIGHT CALL

19th March 2017

It may not have arrived in glamorous style with a Hong Kong Derby winner or even a Class One but the Price Bloodstock 500^th Hong Kong winner did turn up on Derby day at Sha Tin, as Right Call showed typical grit and determination to punch above his reputation and take out the fourth win of his career.

Early in the day, Price Bloodstock Hall Of Famer Contentment nearly landed the Class One handicap and then, in the Derby, hopes that dark horse Prawn Baba could spring an upset and bring home the 500 in real style were smashed when he missed the start, but he ran a brave seventh after getting too far back and there does look a classy win in him over a staying trip sometime In the future.

But it was left to Right Call to ring up the milestone and maybe there was some justice in that because his honesty, consistency and determination is so typical of the Price Bloodstock horses, whether they are Group One performers or middle grade runners.

Right Call has been balancing on the dividing line between Class Four and Class Three – too good for Four and just not quite there in Three – but he took advantage of the slower conditions to add a new string to his bow and win in Class Three over 1,200m.

“Normally, he finds 1,200m a bit sharp in any class. They sprint too fast for him,” said trainer John Size. “But with a bit of rain around the track was a bit slower than usual and that brought the others back to him. Right Call is such a terrific racehorse even if he’s not a star, you’d love to have every horse try as hard as he does. He is so honest. He just pings the lids, puts himself In the race, travels beautifully and really helps his jockeys out.”

The win was fairly narrow but the rating increase might put Right Call out of sight of Class Four, for a while anyway, but his genuine nature and lucky racing style might see him still able to improve on the almost $3 million in stake money he has now earned.

Size has had many successes with the Price Bloodstock horses over his glittering Hong Kong career, including top class gallopers like Contentment, Sight Winner, Entrapment and paid tribute to the association after learning of the 500-win milestone.

“That’s a great achievement and quite a few of those winners would have been in my stable. The Price Bloodstock horses arrive sound, well educated and well vetted for their share of ability and the processes they go through overseas make my job to get them up and running quickly when they arrive here so much easier,” Size said.