MATHEW de Kock, snapped at the draw ceremony for Sunday’s Audemars Piguet QEII Cup at Sha-Tin in Hong Kong by www.sahorseracing.com, who are attending the event.

Mathew drew Number 11 for Ertijaal (AUS) and this is not an ideal gate to start from on the fast, sharp track.

Mike de Kock commented: “This will make things very tough for us but that’s racing.  Sometimes you travel far with a horse only to get a disappointing draw like this. We’ll leave it to Douglas Whyte, he is a professional, he’s win the race several times and I can’t tell him what to do.”

Mike reported that Ertijaal had a canter on the sand track this morning, just to keep him ticking over.