There is an old saying in China, if people are unlucky, they will plug their teeth when they drink cold water! This sentence is applied to David Heath, the top horse trainer in Hong Kong, and it is impossible to tell the bad luck he has encountered in succession recently!
David Heath, a 59-year-old trainer who took over the baton after John Moya retired from the Hong Kong horse scene, also became the first foreign trainer in the history of Hong Kong horse racing to receive a second-time license. David Heath is the son of legendary Australian horse trainer Gorenhes, who was awarded a horse trainer licence in 1990. He has demonstrated a strong talent as a horse trainer, rising to the top of the list in just five years, accumulating 31 first-class races, including winning prestigious events such as the Japan Cup and the Melbourne Cup. David Heath has a countless aura: he was twice a Hong Kong Champion Trainer (1997/1998 and 1998/1999 Seasons); an eight-time Melbourne and nine-time Adelaide Champion Trainer, the youngest trainer to be inducted into the Australian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (2008); the only Australian trainer ever to win the Japan Cup ('Please Relax'; the first Australian trainer to win 300 first races in a single season (1994).
David Heath first came to Hong Kong in 1996 and has been in the top four of the trainers' list for ten seasons in Hong Kong, and has won the championship trainer award twice, achieving a total of 458 first horses, with important achievements including winning the First Division Hong Kong Short Distance Championship and the Hong Kong Pyrrhus Competition. But David Heath has suffered a lot of bad times since he returned to Hong Kong in July 2020, and the recent Race Day was even more disastrous for the former master of the Lingxian Ranch. In the first season of David Heath's return to the Hong Kong horse world, the "good fortune" (patrilineal "writing tycoon") who contributed 5 head horses to him injured a leg, because it was found that the horse kicked himself during training and needed time to rest, David Heath said that although the injury was not serious, but it could not be rushed, the four-year-old horse classic series winning favorite is likely to miss the entire series, but also because of the Hong Kong Pyrrhy. At present, only four-year-old "Jia Yun Cai" won all five games in the first season in Hong Kong, and was named the best new horse of last season, which was originally the highest-rated registered horse and the favorite to win the championship in Hong Kong this year.
Pictured: Last season's best new horse "Good Luck Cai"
Another foal that also set its sights on this, the "Nova of Helian" (patrilineal "Van Goyle"), imported from England, broke free of the groom's control while swimming, slipped and broke his knee, and was subsequently comforted. "Xilian Nova" has only played two races in Hong Kong, and the imported former horse is called Side Shot, which has played for Gordon and Gossud's stables in the United Kingdom, achieving a 9-4 victory.
Going back further, at the Hong Kong International Event in December 2021, the hoof collision incident of the Hong Kong Short-distance Championship (First Division, 1200 meters) took the life of his promising "Fat Boy Lak lak" (paternal Warhead), and David Heath's stable was severely damaged.
Pictured: "Packaging Yongsheng" regrets retirement
The Australian first-class double champion and four-year-old horse "Packaging Yongsheng" (paternal "Biya Road"), which has attracted much attention from David Heath, was imported into Hong Kong, but his bland performance in last season's four-year-old horse race was taken away by horse owner Li Wenbin, who retired from Hong Kong after playing in March last year and plans to return to Australia to start again. As a result, the horse was found to have nosebleeds in both nostrils after testing in Australia last September, and finally decided to arrange for the horse to be officially retired. The highly anticipated First Division winner ended his career with just five races in Hong Kong.
Before the start of the season, David Heath also held a grand pre-season worship ceremony in the stable, attended by deputy trainer Wang Zhixiong and jockey Yang Minglun to pray for the smooth progress of the new season. But David Heath has suffered losses this season. ay! Burning incense and worshiping the Buddha is no longer working!