mosaic tile winning

Wed, 03/01/2023 - 02:50

The SCMP of 27 February, 1922 begins its racing report by saying "The Off Day on Saturday brought to a close the successful 1922 meeting of the Hong Kong Jockey Club." What is striking in this photo is the large number of Chinese spectators pressed against the railings by comparison with my previous two winning post photos and David's "Winning a Race" photo of 1909. We read that the pony, Stephanotis, owned by Mr Moxon, "unbeaten in three previous starts, and carrying a lot of money, ran inexplicably poorly and was easily beaten." That was one of the "two outstanding happenings of the day." As it happens, "our" Warren pony, Mosaic Tile was running against Stephanotis in the 6th Race (pictured). Again we read: that Stephanotis "was backed very heavily for the Subscriptions Griffins Champions and ran a bad third. He led for most of the distance, but at the finish Mosaic Tile, second favourite at 6 to 1, ran away from him and won easily, while third fancy Kinsha, beat him for second place by a length and a half." In another article I have read that Mosaic Tile, ridden by Mr Knoll, won by five lengths. I have even read that it "bolted", in which case Mr Knoll did well to stay on. The race carried a cup, called the Professional Cup with $500 given by the donors and $500 added. Mr Gilbert Harriman was our trainer at the time. He appears in a photo with my aunt Evelyn Warren and Mosaic Tile after the race. It was a proud moment for my family. I see that someone has drawn an arrow pointing to our house, The Towers in the right hand corner of the photo. I think Mosaic Tile was subsequently sold to F.H. Kew and renamed Kookaburra. Apologies for the bad quality of the photo, nonetheless treasured by my family.

Date picture taken
25 Feb 1922
Author(s)