The G1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2400m) is rightly renowned as a premier test of our elite stayers and last Sunday was no exception to the rule.
The race’s honour roll contains a string of outstanding horses, including River Verdon, Viva Pataca, Vengeance Of Rain, Indigenous and Exultant, and the ability to stay 2400m against elite opposition is the key to success.
In my view, there was a question mark if Romantic Warrior would stay the extra 400m looking at his pedigree, despite Sha Tin being an easy 2400m. What made Romantic Warrior’s task even more difficult was that Money Catcher challenged him at the 800m.
The way the race was run and the superior stamina of a proven top-class stayer in Russian Emperor, with a brilliant ride of Hugh Bowman, made the difference despite a heroic performance from Romantic Warrior, who is world-class 2000m middle distance horse, but he is not a typical stayer like Russian Emperor or Five G Patch.
In the end, only a neck separated Russian Emperor and Romantic Warrior in what was a training triumph for Douglas Whyte, who has had manage his stable star through a string of soundness issues but has still been able to win three Group 1s with him in Hong Kong.
As well as winning last year’s G1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup, Russian Emperor also travelled to Qatar in February and won the QAT G1 H. H. The Amir Trophy (2400m), further evidence of his incredible stamina.
With much of the attention centred on Russian Emperor and Romantic Warrior last Sunday, the performance of Five G Patch to finish off with a race-best sectional of 23.39s and claim third placing suggests Tony Cruz might have another quality stayer on his hands, while the effort of Queen Mother Memorial Cup Handicap winner Straight Arron to run fourth was creditable.
It was interesting to note that the first three on Sunday were all European-bred horses which demonstrates the strong of focus of the European breeding industry on middle-distance horses and stayers.
I want to thank our sponsor Standard Chartered for their great support and for creating a wonderful entertainment experience for their guests who enjoyed the last Group 1 race of the season along with our loyal racing fans.
Hong Kong horse racing generates incredible interest – not only locally, but also abroad – and last Sunday’s meeting, with the presence of outstanding gallopers such as Russian Emperor and Romantic Warrior, demonstrated again why the sport is so treasured in Hong Kong.
The G1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater meeting was also our last day race meeting of the 2022/23 season and I am looking forward to the first twilight meeting this Sunday with a start time of 4pm.
At Happy Valley tonight, the Briar Handicap is carded as Race 9 for Class 2 horses over 1800m at 10.50pm with prizemoney of HK$2.9 million.
The pace in the race will be good with Sword Point likely to take up the role of leader from gate eight. Packing Award and Meaningful Star will race on the speed from inside gates, with Savvy Nine also holding a forward position from his rails draw.
Nimble Nimbus has an impressive record at Happy Valley having won three times this season over 1650m and comes to this race after a last start third to Encountered on 12 April. At his only 1800m run, Nimble Nimbus was runner up to Sword Point at Sha Tin and meets him better at the weights here. Alexis Badel will have him in a perfect spot from gate three and he is a place chance.
Sword Point raced well through the Four-Year-Old Classic Series and stepped up in distance to the 2400m of the Queen Mother Memorial Cup where he raced on the speed and fought on gamely to finish a close second to Straight Arron on 7 May. Sword Point is having his first start at Happy Valley and is a win and place chance with Karis Teetan aboard.
Alacrity will go back from his outside draw and Zac Purton will hoping for a solid pace throughout. He was an impressive winning over this trip at Sha Tin two runs back and stayed on from the back when sixth to Straight Arron again over 1800m on 23 April and is a place chance.
Meaningful Star was rewarded for his consistency when winning at this course and distance last start and is a place chance stepping up in class from his good draw. La City Blanche also comes into the race as a last start winner in Class 3 at the course and distance and also has place claims for Matthew Chadwick.
This is a very deep race to close an excellent Happy Wednesday race card with horses like Savaquin, Butterfield and Packing Award also racing well.
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