High-quality horses are the foundation of all world-class racing jurisdictions and Hong Kong is in the fortunate position of having several outstanding horses to shape and promote our product on the international stage.
Golden Sixty and Lucky Sweynesse share second place in the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings on an international mark of 125 behind Japanese star Equinox (129), while Romantic Warrior is joint fifth on 123 and California Spangle is equal eighth on 122.
Given the fact Hong Kong’s racehorse population stands at only 1,250, the presence of these outstanding horses among a global elite is a fantastic achievement and it is something we are extremely proud of but we must also always to look to the future.
Bearing in mind that Hong Kong’s current four-year-old crop is headed by the world’s top-rated sprinter Lucky Sweynesse, the performances on Sunday (25 June) at Sha Tin of John Size pair Beauty Eternal and Tuchel further indicated our four-year-old division is progressive and shapes as the foundation of the next generation.
Beauty Eternal has been excellent this season in climbing from 52 in the Hong Kong handicap to a mark of 117 with seven wins and three placings from 10 starts after his victory in the G3 Premier Cup Handicap (1400m). He is an exciting horse for John and I look forward to tracking his progress next season and beyond.
Tuchel, who was runner-up in the BMW Hong Kong Derby, started the season on a handicap of 70 and, with victory in the G3 Premier Plate Handicap (1800m), he now has six wins and six placings from 15 starts and rating of 105 in becoming one of Hong Kong’s most consistent horses.
Both Tuchel and Beauty Eternal were ridden by Zac Purton, whose five-timer on Sunday takes him to 160 wins for the season and he has another seven meetings left in his attempt to eclipse Joao Moreira’s record of 170 wins in a single campaign.
Karis Teetan secured an important milestone of his own last Sunday with a double taking his Hong Kong tally to 600 wins, a mark reached previously by Douglas Whyte, Zac, Joao, Tony Cruz, Brett Prebble, Gary Moore, Basil Marcus, Gerald Mosse and Felix Coetzee – exalted company, to say the least.
On the trainers’ front, John’s Sunday treble leaves him with a nine-win lead over Frankie Lor as he bids for a record 12th championship in what has been an absorbing battle between the pair. I look to the final stages of the rivalry over the closing weeks of the season.
At Happy Valley on Wednesday night, the Violet Handicap is carded as Race 9 for Class 3 horses at 10.50pm and will be run over 1200m with prizemoney of HK$1,725,000.
The speed in the race will be good with Superb Capitalist the leader from gate three and Magic Phoenix and Victory Scholars also likely to be in the leading division. E Universe should press forward from his wide gate to be close to the speed with Wonder Kit just behind the leaders from his rails draw.
Superb Capitalist made a big impression when winning on debut and has built on that since switching to Happy Valley where the three-year-old is undefeated in two recent runs. He pushed on from a wide draw to eventually lead on 7 June and fought on strongly to hold out Reward Smile in the concluding stages. Apprentice Angus Chung takes the ride again and with his claim and a perfect draw, Superb Capitalist is my win and place selection.
Reward Smile started a short-priced favourite in that race, settling midfield on the fence before getting out early in the straight but couldn’t run down Superb Capitalist. He has a slightly awkward draw in gate 10 but is partnered by Zac Purton for the first time and is a place chance.
Wonder Kit settled at the back of the field in the race won by Superb Capitalist and was charging home late to finish fourth, not beaten far from the winner. He produced a similar effort at his previous start when closing late to be narrowly beaten by Magic Phoenix. Both those runs were from wide draws and Wonder Kit is racing well and is likely to be close to the lead from his rails draw. He is a place chance for Vincent Ho.
This a deep race to close the card with a number of other runners racing well with place claims, including Victory Scholars, Magic Phoenix and Phoenix Light.
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