While much of Hong Kong’s current racing focus rests on Zac Purton’s march towards history and his pursuit of Douglas Whyte’s all-time record of 1,813 wins by a jockey, the battle for the 2024/25 trainers’ championship and the emergence of Four-Year-Old Classic candidates are also providing tremendous interest.
In moving to 1,805 Hong Kong wins with a double at Sha Tin last Sunday (5 January), Zac took his seasonal tally to 65 wins – 37 clear of Hugh Bowman (28) with Vincent Ho (23) next – and requires only nine more victories to overtake Douglas.
As dominant as Zac has been this season, the battle for the trainers’ championship remains incredibly competitive with a string of trainers strongly in contention.
While Pierre Ng is again leading the title race with 26 wins, Mark Newnham (24), David Hayes (23), Danny Shum (23), Francis Lui (20), Frankie Lor (19), Caspar Fownes (19), Ricky Yiu (18), John Size (18), Cody Mo (18) and Tony Cruz (17) are all well placed to push for the championship.
Pierre led the championship at the corresponding stage last season with 41 wins, 15 clear of second-placed Francis who crowned a famous comeback at the season finale by saddling four of the final five winners of 2023/24 to claim the championship 70-69 over Pierre.
After 35 of 88 scheduled meetings this season, the stage is set for another fascinating tussle among our world-class horseman for ultimate honours.
With the HK$13 million G1 Stewards’ Cup (1600m) and HK$13 million G1 Centenary Sprint Cup (1200m) looming at Sha Tin on Gentleman’s Raceday on 19 January, the HK$52 million Four-Year-Old Classic Series continues to take shape with several promising horses performing strongly.
PACKING ANGEL’s victory last Sunday over 1400m in Class 3 for Francis and Zac was certainly impressive and earned a nine-point rise in the ratings to 72, which might not be sufficient for him to gain a start in the HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) on 31 January.
But he appears to be horse on an upward trajectory among a talented group of promising four-year-old milers and middle-distance horses including PACKING HERMOD, DIVANO, RUBYLOT, JOHANNES BRAHMS, MICKLEY, STUNNING PEACH, ROMANTIC THOR and NAVAL FORCE, among others, as we track towards the HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) on 2 March and the HK$26 million BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) on 23 March.
Our Winter Wonderland extravaganza continues at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (8 January) with the appearance of the very talented entertainer Rechelle Mansour in the Beer Garden, along with fabulous food and beverages.
Patrons can enjoy world-class racing from close quarters at the iconic city circuit, highlighted by the running of the Group 3 January Cup, which is carded as Race 7 at 9.45pm and run over 1800m for prizemoney of HK$4.2 million.
The pace will be good with FLAMINGO TRILLION (Derek Leung) likely to lead with STAR CONTACT (Lyle Hewitson) settling outside the leader. WOODFIRE BRO (Keith Yeung) will be close to the speed from gate four and 2023 race winner, MONEY CATCHER (Matthew Poon) is likely to push forward from his wide draw. MOMENTS IN TIME (Hugh Bowman) will be in the forward half of the field from gate six.
HAPPY TOGETHER starts from barrier 10 and Alex will try find cover in the first half of the field. He fought on strongly in the straight to finish fifth to VOYAGE BUBBLE in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) last month, beaten just over two lengths. HAPPY TOGETHER has to give weight to all his rivals but he is a win and place chance.
MOMENTS IN TIME went back from a wide gate last start and ran home strongly in the straight to be a close second to CHILL CHIBI over this course and distance on 4 December. MOMENTS IN TIME should be closer to the lead from his middle draw and he is a place chance.
FLAMINGO TRILLION has a good record at this course and distance, winning three times last season. He fought on well in the straight to be fifth to CHILL CHIBI last start and he is a place chance with his light weight and barrier two.
HELENE FEELING ran third in this race last year behind HAPPY TOGETHER and he ran on fairly into sixth behind PATCH OF THETA in the Chevalier Cup on 24 November. HELENE FEELING has spent time at Conghua since and has trialled well leading to this race. Harry Bentley rides HELENE FEELING for the first time and he is a place chance.
This is a competitive race and, if there is a strong pace, LA CITY BLANCHE (Matthew Chadwick) and FIVE G PATCH (Brenton Avdulla) can figure in the finish, while WOODFIRE BRO has a good record at the city track and can run well with his light weight.
The Mega Mark Six draw last night (Tuesday, 7 January) was incredibly popular with turnover reaching HK$328.8 million with customer traffic in our Off Course Betting Branches (OCCB) totalling 461,700 individual customers. This figure represents an increase of almost 16% on the 2 January customer traffic of 398,233 customers.
I would like to thank all our employees who served customers in OCCBs and also those who assisted on digital platforms for their enormous dedication in ensuring the success of the record Mark Six draw. I would also like to congratulate the two winners of the first prize, who each claimed HK$69.2 million.
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