Platinum Racing

The final day of the autumn carnival at Randwick and the feature races in Singapore and Hong Kong on the weekend restored the faith of all racing people in the "Racing Gods."

At Randwick everyone was pleased to see Josh Parr land his innaugural Gr 1 winner when he won the Champagne Stakes on Skilled for Darley and trainer Peter Snowden. Later in the afternoon the entire racing fraterniry was ecstatic to see wonderful racemare Hot Danish finally complete her CV with a win in the Gr 1 All Aged Stakes (1400 metres).

In Singapore Rocket Man atoned his unlucky second in the Golden Shaheen in Dubai with a monstrous win in the Gr 1 Lions City Cup (1200 metres) at Kranji while in Hong Kong grand old galloper Viva Pataca put his second QEII Cup on the mantlepeice in winning the Gr 1 feature at Shatin on Sunday, now surpassing Vengeance Of Rain as the highest money earner ever to have raced in Hong Kong.

Parr has been a real success story and you would be hard pressed to find one person in the Sydney racing scene that will not tell you that Josh Parr is not a wonderful young man. Son of jockey Steve Parr, Josh is an absolute credit to his Dad and Mum Melinda (who by the way celebrated her birthday on Saturday), and he is the perfect example of someone who will not accept defeat and works at his craft non-stop to make himself a better jockey.

After a successful apprenticeship that began on the Central Coast, Parr moved to Sydney and linked up with the Gai Waterhouse stable. He was successful at Randwick, but his career stalled and he moved on to Peter Snowden at Warwick Farm. There he put in the hard yards, often riding the Darley horses at Newcastle or Kembla on a Saturday and he just kept taking every opportunity he got and kept working hard at the track of the morning.

The win on Saturday was a just reward for a wonderful young man who has worked his butt off to make a success of his career.

The win of Hot Danish electrified Randwick. This mare is just a cracker. Hot Danish was ridden as usual by Tim Clark who actually lives with Josh Parr and next weekend will marry Josh's sister Jayde. Tim and Jayde recently had their first child, Elle, and he has been associated with Hot Danish in all of her feature wins.

This mare has been luckless in many Gr 1 races, particularly through striking bad tracks, which dulls the brilliant turn of foot that eh has. But on Saturday she got her preferred good track and let down brilliantly in the straight to beat Mellito (her conqueror in the T.J. Smith) and in doing so carved out her last 600 metres in 33 and change.

Hot Danish's career is a tribute to the wonderful horsemanship of her trainer Les Bridge, and he was justifiably emotional after her win on Saturday. Bridge was won a Melbourne Cup (Kensei), Metropolitan (Pitchman), Golden Slipper, Spring Championship Stakes and other feature races (Sir Dapper) and a Doncaster (Row Of Waves).

For him to say he enjoyed Saturday's win with Hot Danish more than any of them is a testament to the depth of admiration he has for this outstanding mare.

Rocket Man was simply devastating in Singapore on Saturday night and trainer Patrick Shaw later announced he would race in Australia in the spring after he attempts to avenge his defeat at the hands of Sacred Kingdom in last year's Kris Flyer Sprint in the 2010 renewal next month.

He is an extraordinary sprinter and his presence here in Australia will add a real level of interest to the spring carnival in Melbourne.

Viva Pataca was back to his brilliant best to win the Gr 1 QEII Cup (2000m) at Shatin yesterday with Weichong Marwing in the saddle. Trained by John Moore, and owned by leviathan Casino magnate, Dr Stanley Ho, Viva Pataca now holds the mantle as the greatest ever prizemoney earner in Hong Kong, with just over HK$82 million.

The winner of 18 of his 42 starts - he has had a stellar career that has netted him two QEII Cups and a HK Derby. He was going to come to Australia a couple of seasons back to contest the Cox Plate when EI struck - and he would have been right there had he come.

Sunday's two feature races were a triumph for Aussie trainer John Moore as he also won the Champions Mile with Able One (Darren Beadman) - and it was Able One's second win in the race also - having won the race previously in 2007 with Mick Kinnane in the saddle.

Moore is well and truly out of contention in this year's HK trainer's premiership but he has has won the races that count this season and is more than $20m ahead of any other trainer in the prizemoney stakes.

WILLIE IS BACK:

It was great to see young Willie Pearson back in the winner's circle with a winning double at Canberra today. Pearson won on Pass The Bubbly, trained by his father Chicka, and Louisianna Flyer for Barbara Joseph.

Pearson has had his battles, recently returning from a lengthy stint on the sidelines over a drug infringement on the Gold Coast. He is a talented rider and hopefully he will now get his career back on track.

Matthew Cahill also continued his recent good run of success with a winning double, Engineered for Ric Worthington and Rococzar for Len Hodgson.

DYE OFF THE MARK IN MAURITIUS:

Shane Dye had to wait till the fourth meeting of the season to get off the mark in Mauritius - winning yesterday on Red Indian to open this year's account.

Dye was the champion jockey in Mauritius last season.

CALLOW DOMINATES PERAK PROGRAM:

Noel Callow dominated yesterday's Perak meeting in Malaysia - riding four winners. Callow won on Triple Luck (Y.N. Liew), Embassy (K.P. Hoy), Billy Boy (Richard LInes) and Shanghai Sam (J.H. Tan).

Fellow Aussie jockey Brad Pengelly also rode a winner at the meeting - getting home on board Hot Butterfly for trainer Kevin Coetzee.