The relentless pursuit of excellence is one of the hallmarks of Hong Kong racing and with four of the city’s champion horses – GOLDEN SIXTY, LUCKY SWEYNESSE, ROMANTIC WARRIOR and CALIFORNIA SPANGLE – in the top 15 of the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings (WBRR) and all 12 of Hong Kong’s Group 1 races featuring in the world’s Top 100 Group 1 contest, we can feel immensely proud.
With GOLDEN SIXTY (joint sixth), LUCKY SWEYNESSE (equal eight), ROMANTIC WARRIOR and CALIFORNIA SPANGLE (joint 15th), Hong Kong continues to display its top-line quality on the international stage with a horse population of about 1,200 – or 0.8% of the global racehorse population.
This year marks the first time in LONGINES WBRR history that Hong Kong has four horses in the top 15 with an international rating of 123 or higher and it is pertinent to point out that only 13 Hong Kong horses have ever achieved a mark of 123 or higher – so we are very privileged to have GOLDEN SIXTY, LUCKY SWEYNESSE, ROMANTIC WARRIOR and CALIFORNIA SPANGLE currently racing in Hong Kong.
With no breeding industry of our own, the efforts of Hong Kong owners and trainers to identify and source elite equine athletes is crucially important to the Club’s aspiration to keep Hong Kong at the international forefront of our sport.
Achieving a career-high international rating of 126 at the age of eight is a phenomenal accomplishment by GOLDEN SIXTY and accurately reflects the authority of his amazing G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) triumph in December.
To put GOLDEN SIXTY’s global standing into context, only five horses in the world – EQUINOX (135), ACE IMPACT (128), MOSTAHDAF (128), BIG ROCK (127) and HUKUM (127) – are rated higher than Francis Lui’s champion galloper.
LUCKY SWEYNESSE (125) is the world’s top-ranked sprinter after a magnificent year for Manfred Man, while miler CALIFORNIA SPANGLE and middle-distance titan ROMANTIC WARRIOR both finished 2023 with exceptional ratings of 123.
Hong Kong’s effort to have four outstanding horses in the top 15 is evidence of the importance of our record prize money and bonus schemes, which deliver valuable returns on investments for Hong Kong owners who are acquiring quality horses to race here.
It is clear from the 2023 LONGINES WBRR standings that we have incredible quality at the top end and we are optimistic that other horses such as VOYAGE BUBBLE, STRAIGHT ARRON, BEAUTY ETERNAL, TAJ DRAGON, the current four-year-old crop and a host of other talented horses will continue to emerge.
It was a privilege to attend the LONGINES awards ceremony in London where I had the honour of presenting the connections of EQUINOX with the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse award. EQUINOX won four of the world’s top six races, including the Japan Cup, which was ajudged the world’s top G1 in 2023.
The Japan Cup returned an overall rating of 126.75, while the G1 Stewards’ Cup achieved a strong mark of 121.75 after GOLDEN SIXTY and ROMANTIC WARRIOR fought out the finish in a race which featured four other individual Group 1 winners.
Each of Hong Kong’s Group 1 races achieved a rating of 117 or higher, which reflects a continual rise in quality on 2022, when 10 of our 12 Group 1s made the top 100 with ratings of 115 or above.
Significantly, 2023 marks the first year that we have had all of our 12 Group 1s in the Top 100 since this ranking category was created in 2014, which is another great reflection on Hong Kong racing.
Competing in the absence of GOLDEN SIXTY, VOYAGE BUBBLE showed his class with a convincing win in the 2024 G1 Stewards’ Cup (1600m) at Sha Tin last Sunday (21 January) and again showed his impressive versality for Ricky Yiu and James McDonald.
As the winner of the BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m), VOYAGE BUBBLE has also won over 1200m, 1400m and 1600m (three times), but last weekend’s success marked his first at Group 1 level and there still appears to be potential for further improvement.
As James pointed out post-race at the weekend, there are many race options for Ricky to consider in Hong Kong as the season unfolds, notably the HK$13 million G1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) on 10 March and the HK$22 million FWD Champions Mile (1600m) on 28 April.
At Sha Tin tonight, the Class 2 Egret Handicap is carded as race two at 7.45pm and carries HK$3,120,000 in prizemoney. The pace in the race will be good with front runner ALL FOR ST PAUL’S setting the speed from gate two. MR ASCENDENCY has drawn the rails and should find the leader’s back, with CHANCHENG PRINCE in a forward position outside the leader.
CHANCHENG PRINCE is a surface and distance specialist, having won four times including twice last season. He resumed when runner-up to ALL FOR ST PAUL’S on 25 October over this trip when he drew the outside gate, racing wide without cover and staying on in the straight.
CHANCHENG PRINCE has had two runs since over 1200m and comes back to his preferred 1650m trip here after spending time in Conghua since his last start on 26 December when a close third to XPONENTIAL. Hugh Bowman should settle him on the speed, one off the fence from gate five and Chancheng Prince is my win and place chance.
ALACRITY has been racing well this season without winning and races on this surface for the first time. At his most recent run, ALACRITY held a forward position from an inside draw and faded in the last 100m when fifth to HELIOS EXPRESS. ALACRITY trialled well on this surface before that run and is a place chance for Karis Teetan.
MR ASCENDANCY was having his second run for the season when he settled back in the field and ran home strongly to take fourth place in the same race as ALACRITY, won by HELIOS EXPRESS on 7 January. MR ASCENDANCY races for the first time on the All Weather Track but will be settle closer to the lead from his rails draw and is place chance for Harry Bentley.
ALL FOR ST PAUL’S is having his first run back on the surface since he led throughout and easily defeated CHANCHENG PRINCE over this distance on 25 October. He has been well beaten at his last two starts but he should get an easy lead in front with Angus Chung riding and is a place chance at good odds.
Of the other runners APACHE PASS has won three races at the course and distance and can improve on his recent form.
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