It was an amazing night for Hong Kong when our athlete Vivian Kong won the first gold medal for Hong Kong by defeating her French opponent in the Women’s Epee Final. This is Hong Kong’s third Olympics gold medal in history.
Vivian fully demonstrated Hong Kong’s “can-do” spirit as she picked up from original 1 to 7 behind, till 12-12, and eventually won the gold medal by 13-12 during the extended time.
The Club supported our Olympic athletes with the Jockey Club Athlete Incentive Awards Scheme, recognizing their huge efforts and dedication. Vivian will be awarded with HK$6 million.
World‘s finest races from South Africa and Germany provide Sunday’s World Pool highlights
Showcasing the world’s finest races is integral to the appeal of the Club’s Word Pool operation and last night (Saturday, 27 July) we saw Christophe Soumillon steering GOLIATH to an impressive victory in the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. The winner GOLIATH is a German-bred horse with the sire ADLERFLUG is an outstanding stallion with many Group winners including a Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner TORQUATOR TASSO from a very limited number of foals. Unfortunately ADLERFLUG died in 2021 but I was lucky that my mare NOW FOREVER was the last mare he covered producing a colt called NOW THE EAGLE which is now in training on Chantilly with Nicolas Clément.
GOLIATH is a four-year-old gelding and is owned by the famous German owner-breeder family of the Von Ullmann‘s and I will try to convince them to come to Hong Kong for the LONGINES Hong Kong Vase.
Meanwhile, the Charlie Appleby-trained REBEL’S ROMANCE displayed a gusty performance to finish a gallant third behind GOLIATH and BLUESTOCKING in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The G1 Standard Champions & Chater Cup victor now placed in all of his six starts in England and I look forward to see him coming to Hong Kong again for the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races in December.
Our simulcast programme continues on Sunday (28 July) with Champions Cup Day from Greyville Racecourse in Durban, South Africa and Grosser Preis Bayerisches Zuchtrennen Day from Munich Racecourse in Germany.
Keagan De Melo, who had 21 wins during his first season of riding in Hong Kong, will compete at Champions Day, where the first of 10 races is run at 6.05pm.
There are four Group 1 races at Durban, including the Douglas Whyte Stakes (1600m), the World Pool Moment of the Day Champion Stakes (1600m) and the Mercury Sprint (1200m). The feature race is the G1 HKJC Champions Cup (1800m), which is carded as S2-8 and will be run at 10.50pm.
Keagan will partner Cape Town Met winner DOUBLE SUPERLATIVE in the HKJC Champions Cup for Justin Snaith and faces nine rivals including DAVE THE KING, who is chasing a third consecutive win for Richard Fourie and Mike De Kock.
SEE IT AGAIN, FLAG MAN, COUSIN CASEY, ROYAL VICTORY and BARBARESCO are place chances in a very open race.
Keagan will ride LOCK AND KEY in the Douglas Whyte Stakes, GREAT PLAINS in the World Pool Moment of the Day Champion Stakes and ROYAL AUSSIE in the Mercury Sprint.
The G1 Grosser Preis Bayerisches Zuchtrennen is carded as S3-1 and is run over 2000m at 8.15pm.
FANTASTIC MOON finished second in this race last year behind NATIONS PRIDE and returns for Sarah Steinberg and Rene Piechulek. FANTASTIC MOON won at Group 2 level over 2200m at Cologne and he is a win and a place chance on Sunday.
Andreas Wohler has two starters – STRAIGHT, who will be ridden by Jozef Bojko, and WESTMINSTER MOON, who will be partnered by Eduardo Pedroza. WESTMINISTER MOON is a lightly-raced stayer who finished third at Group 3 level at his most recent start and he is a place chance.
CALIF (Adrie De Vries) resumed last start with a strong win and is a place chance along with talented three-year-old PENALTY (Thore Hammer Hansen).
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