Fownes and son celebrate Sha Tin double with Sky Heart

Caspar Fownes was ruing a “relatively frustrating day” just moments before he and his son, Ronan, were howling in celebration as Sky Heart fought to the very end to win the finale at Sha Tin.

After the trainer took out the third race of the day with Daily Trophy, Sky Heart secured Fownes a double when he produced a bold effort as a 15.3 shot, defying a wide draw in barrier 13 under Ellis Won Chi-wang.

Sky Heart, who settled prominently one off the rail, kept on well in the closing stages to fend off Master Of All and send the father-son duo into raptures.

“Give it a bit of that son, we love it,” Fownes said as he punched the air after the race. 

Sky Trust arrived at the track yesterday with a solid record of three wins from 12 starts, but a series of complications had meant the five-year-old had been sidelined for nearly six months.

“He’s a good horse and we’ve always had a very high opinion of him, but he’s just had umpteen problems,” Fownes said.

“He had colic surgery and he was out for a while but we’ve given him a really good prep and we were just gutted when we saw the draw today. But we just pressed on and relied on his fitness and you can see he’s a good horse because he really stuck his neck out.”

While 5.8 chance Sky Song failed to trouble the judge and the 3.1 favorite of the feature, Dancing Code, couldn’t land a blow for the Fownes stable after he missed the break, the trainer said he was pleased to tick over to nine wins for the season from the opening 10 meetings.

“The horses are going good but they need to be when most trainers have 70 horses,” Fownes added.

Fownes’ double brought him level with David Hayes in the trainers’ championship, one win behind current leader Mark Newnham.