With only two weeks until FWD Champions Day, the sense of anticipation and excitement continues to build with the appearance today (Sunday, 13 April) at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Day at Sha Tin of several horses who have been selected to run at our premier spring meeting on 27 April.
Group 1 winner INVINCIBLE SAGE, Hong Kong Classic Cup victor RUBYLOT, MUGEN, BEAUTY JOY and GORGEOUS WIN are all entered at Sha Tin today in preparation for FWD Champions Day and, with the imminent arrival of overseas horses on Monday (14 April), the flagship meeting is quickly taking shape.
We are delighted with the quality of the world-class FWD Champions Day entry, which is crowned by the world’s top-rated sprinter KA YING RISING, crack Hong Kong miler VOYAGE BUBBLE and outstanding horses such as GOLIATH, LIBERTY ISLAND, MR BRIGHTSIDE and SATONO REVE, among many others.
The participation of 19 individual Group 1 winners among the 45-strong entry and the involvement of champion international jockeys including James McDonald, Joao Moreira, Christophe Soumillon, Craig Williams and Yuga Kawada, along with our own champion riders, sets the scene for a wonderful meeting.
I travelled to Sydney yesterday (12 April) for Day 2 of The Championships at Randwick and the performance of last year’s LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings number 3 VIA SISTINA was very impressive in winning the G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) and I expressed to the owner Mr Zhang that he should consider coming to Hong Kong for the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races and a race between VIA SISTINA and ROMANTIC WARRIOR, which is what the racing world is waiting for.
DUBAI HONOUR finished second to VIA SISTINA and William Haggas after the race decided that he would come to Hong Kong for the G1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2400m) in May and not the G1 FWD QEII Cup (2000m) because he believes the best distance is now 2400m.
At Sha Tin on Sunday (13 April), we celebrate the Club’s long-standing and successful partnerships with Government departments, non-government organisations, community groups and academic institutions in support of Hong Kong’s social needs with the staging of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Day.
The Class 2 Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Trophy Handicap (1200m) was first run in 2005 and the trophy to be presented to the winning owners today by the Honourable Alice Mak Mei-kuen, Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs for the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is more than 170 years old and was first presented at Happy Valley in 1852 to the winner of the Wongneichong Stakes, COCKSPINNER.
The Club is proud of the role it plays for the betterment of Hong Kong’s community and I look forward to a great day’s racing to celebrate the Club’s many important humanitarian and social partnerships.
Sunday’s feature race is the Class 1 Healthy Community Handicap, which is carded as Race 8 and run over 1400m at 4.10pm with prizemoney of HK$3,720,000.
The speed will be good with DROMBEG BANNER (Andrea Atzeni) set to lead from gate four. INVINCIBLE SAGE (Britney Wong) has drawn barrier one and should be prominent along with DIVANO (Angus Chung).
RUBYLOT (Karis Teetan) won over this course and distance beating YOUNG CHAMPION in January, before tackling the Four-Year-Old Classic Series. He produced an outstanding performance to finish quickly in the final stages to win the Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) and was then fifth in the BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) to CAP FERRAT when he lacked the same brilliance in the concluding stages. RUBYLOT will contest the G1 FWD QEII Cup (2000m) on 27 April, and although coming back in distance, he is a high-class horse and under handicap conditions is my win and place selection.
PATCH OF THETA (Hugh Bowman) has drawn gate two and should be following the speed coming to the home turn. He won the G3 Chinese Club Challenge Cup over this course and distance on 1 January, sweeping past DROMBEG BANNER, coming away to win easily. PATCH OF THETA has since been unplaced in the G1 Stewards’ Cup (1600m) and G1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) but looks ideally suited coming back slightly in grade and he is a place chance.
DROMBEG BANNER is consistent over this course and trip when he leads and he should be able to dictate the pace to suit. He ran well last start when he sat outside the leader and battled on strongly in the straight to finish third behind LUCKY WITH YOU and COPARTNER PRANCE over 1200m and he is a place chance.
BEAUTY JOY (Brenton Avdulla) will appreciate the drop in grade, having run consistently well in Group races at his past 23 starts. At his latest run, he met early trouble before making a forward move to sit on the pace and held on well for fifth behind STRAIGHT ARRON in the Chairman’s Trophy on 30 March. BEAUTY JOY is always better suited if there is strong race in the pace and he is a place chance.
This is a competitive race and MUGEN (Luke Ferraris) made good ground in the straight last start when he resumed off a break and can run well while DIVANO and MR ASCENDENCY (Harry Bentley) have also been in good form and can be competitive with their light weights.
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