With just over six weeks until the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (LONGINES HKIR) at Sha Tin on 8 December, I am pleased with the quality of entries for our flagship meeting.
International racing is a fundamental part of the Club’s operations and integral to our branding as a global racing leader. Accordingly, it is wonderful LONGINES HKIR has again drawn the enthusiastic support of both overseas and local owners and trainers.
The memories of the 2023 LONGINES HKIR are still vivid with the heroics of GOLDEN SIXTY, ROMANTIC WARRIOR, LUCKY SWEYNESSE and JUNKO and, even though we have set an incredibly high standard, I am extremely hopeful the presence of some of the world’s best horses, jockeys and trainers competing for a combined record of HK$126 million in prize money will set the platform for another successful meeting this year.
Entries for the four Group 1 races – the HK$40 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m), HK$36 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m), HK$26 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) and HK$24 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m) – include 58 individual Group 1 winners and, of the 191 nominations, 55 are from Japan.
We have received entries from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America including ROMANTIC WARRIOR, GOLIATH, CALIFORNIA SPANGLE, AUGUSTE RODIN, LIBERTY ISLAND, ANTINO, MR BRIGHTSIDE, REBEL’S ROMANCE, JANTAR MANTAR, LUGAL and LAZZAT.
Some of the world’s most famous trainers have entries, including Aidan O’Brien, Andre Fabre, Chris Waller and Yoshito Yahagi. The depth and quality of the entries is a testament to the hard work of our international racing team in attracting the interest of ambitious overseas and local racing figures and LONGINES HKIR again shapes as a spectacular event.
While established champions ROMANTIC WARRIOR and CALIFORNIA SPANGLE will lead Hong Kong’s defence, I am very excited by the continued emergence of KA YING RISING and GALAXY PATCH, who I am hopeful will contend strongly in the LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint and LONGINES Hong Kong Mile, respectively.
Still only four, KA YING RISING clocked 1m 07.57s in defeating HELIOS EXPRESS and CALIFORNIA SPANGLE at the weekend and, had he not been eased down over the final 100m by Zac Purton, he might have bettered the course record of 1m 07.50s set by SACRED KINGDOM in 2007.
KA YING RISING’s performance crowned the Hong Kong Jockey Club 140th Anniversary Raceday, which was a wonderful success. Unfortunately, I missed the meeting after testing positive to COVID-19. As part of an ongoing commitment to protect the health and welfare of our core racing operation, including officials, owners, trainers and jockeys, I continue to regularly test for COVID and, unfortunately, I tested positive and so remained at home to watch the meeting on television.
Thankfully, I have fully recovered and having tested multiple times negative, I look forward to returning to the races at Sha Tin tonight for the All Weather meeting on Wednesday night and the running of the Class 4 JCI Hong Kong Senate Cup Handicap (1200m), which celebrates the Junior Chamber International Hong Kong (JCI Hong Kong) and its progress towards its 75th anniversary.
JCI Hong Kong was inaugurated in 1950 – and is affiliated with worldwide leadership development organisation, the Junior Chamber Organisation (JCI) – to provide leadership development opportunities that empower young people to create positive change.
The JCI Senate was established in 1952 to recognise outstanding achievements and service of JCI members who have been contributing significantly to JCI and the community. As of 2024, more than 90,000 JCI members around the world have been honoured with JCI senatorship.
At Sha Tin tonight, the Class 3 Wa Mei Shan Handicap (1200m, dirt) is carded as Race 8 and will be run at 10.50pm for prize money of HK$1.86 million.
The pace will be good to fast with HONG KONG HALL, PACKING BOLE and ALPHA ONE all vying for the lead ahead of SELF IMPROVEMENT, ONE FOR ALL and KA YING CHEER.
Zac Purton took SUPER WIN DRAGON forward from a good gate last start when he settled behind the leader and beat CAPITAL DELIGHT and TALENTS AMBITION over this course and distance on 15 September. SUPER WIN DRAGON has been to Conghua since and is a win and place chance from his inside draw with Zac riding again.
ALPHA ONE led over 1000m on the turf last start and held on to beat CELESTIAL COLOURS in a close finish. He has drawn awkwardly in gate 10 and Matthew Chadwick will no doubt go forward from that draw. ALPHA ONE was a good trial winner on this surface before his win and is a place chance.
CAPITAL DELIGHT won over this course and distance at his last run of last season and then resumed with a close second to SUPER WIN DRAGON when he ran home strongly in the straight. He stepped up in class and distance when unplaced behind SWORD POINT last start and back to this trip is a place chance for Vincent Ho.
VICTORY MOMENTS has a very good record on this surface and finished in the top four in seven runs at the course and distance last season. He has been well beaten in his two runs on turf this season but is capable of significant improvement under Hugh Bowman, who takes the ride for the first time and is a place chance despite his wide draw.
This is a deep race with a number of other chances including PACKING BOLE, SELF IMPROVEMENT and MUST GO, who all won on this surface and distance last season and can run well.
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