Hong Kong horse racing is renowned for its capacity to showcase elite sport as quality entertainment and Saturday’s (5 July) meeting at Sha Tin was no exception with the win of DANCING CODE and the presence of his famous owner, Aaron Kwok.
Revered as one of Hong Kong’s ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ in deference to an illustrious career as a singer, dancer and actor, Aaron is incredibly passionate about horse racing, as evidenced by his ownership involvement with horses such as MY FAVOURITE, CALLING WITH LOVE, DANCING FIGHTER, DANCING CLASSICS and DANCING CODE, who won Saturday’s feature the Class 2 The Philip Chen Trophy Handicap (1200m).
Aaron’s joy on watching DANCING CODE win his fifth race in emphatic fashion under Ellis Wong for Caspar Fownes was palpable with the gelding powering home in an impressive final 400m sectional of 22.31s, sparking excitement among the Sha Tin crowd.
With four wins and nine minor placings from 27 starts, DANCING CODE epitomises horse racing’s faculty to deliver immense happiness and satisfaction to owners, trainers and jockeys and I congratulate Aaron on his latest success.
With 10 wins across the past seven meetings, Ellis is making wonderful progress under the tutelage of Caspar, Felix Coetzee and Amy Chan, Headmistress of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Apprentice Jockeys’ School.
In only his second Hong Kong season, Ellis has ridden 51 winners and has swiftly reduced his allowance to five pounds. He is riding with telling confidence at the moment and it is no coincidence this impressive homegrown talent is now in strong demand outside of Caspar’s stable.
While the bulk of his wins this season – 12 – have come for Caspar, Ellis has also ridden successfully for David Hayes, Danny Shum, Pierre Ng, Denis Yip, Douglas Whyte, Manfred Man, Ricky Yiu and Me Tsui.
With only three meetings left in the season, I look forward to the continuation of the unfolding battles for the trainers’ championship where John Size leads David Hayes 66 to 59, while Matthew Poon (36), Matthew Chadwick (34) and Derek Leung (33) are locked in a fascinating battle for the Tony Cruz Award as leading homegrown jockey.
Our simulcast operation continues tonight with Deutsches Derby Day from Hamburg Racecourse in Germany and Prix Jean Prat Day from Deauville Racecourse in France.
The first of five races from Deutsches Derby Day is carded as S3-1 and will be run at 6.50pm. The Hamburg track is currently Good and I would advise monitoring the weather.
The G1 Deutsches Derby was first run in 1869 and is the most important race in Germany. It is carded as S3-5 and will be run over 2400m at 9.43pm.
I have very fond memories about the German Derby because the stud farm I was involved with won the German Derby three times – in 1979 with KONIGSSTUHL, who is still the only German Triple Crown winner, in 1981 with OROFINO, who won by 15.5 lengths, and in 1983 with his half-brother ORDOS.
KONIGSSTUHL enjoyed a successful career as a stallion, being named Germany’s Champion Sire in 1988 and 1994, and had a major influence on German breeding via his son MONSUN, who also became a successful sire, while another of his son’s LAVRICO also won the German Derby in 1996.
MONSUN was the most prominent of KONIGSSTUHL’s progeny and, while not winning the German Derby in 1993, he finished second to stable companion LANDO, who later won the G1 Japan Cup. Following the Derby, MONSUN won three Group 1 races as a three-year-old.
The German Derby is similar to the BMW Hong Kong Derby in that the Derby is a race every owner wants to win and it is the most prestigious race to win.
Many excellent stallions have won the Derby which requires stamina and in most cases is run on a soft or heavy track.
ZUCKERHUT (Cristian Demuro) impressed winning the G2 Union-Rennen (2200m) on 9 June. He was held up at the tail of the field early then and took the lead within the last 150m and won easily at only his third race start. With further improvement ZUCKERHUT is a win and place chance for Peter Schiergen, who has won this race six times.
Karl Burke’s colt CONVERGENT (Clifford Lee) won his first two race starts in Novice company at Redcar before finishing third in the G3 Chester Vase 7 May behind LAMBOURN and LAZY GRIFF, who finished first and second in the Epsom Derby and then finished first and third in the Irish Derby last week. CONVERGENT is also a win and place chance for rider Clifford Lee.
Schiergen is also represented by PATH OF SOLDIER (Andrasch Starke), who won the G3 Bavarian Classic at Munich and then was narrowly beaten as favourite behind JUWELIER in the G3 Derby Trial (2000m) at Baden Baden on 31 May. PATH OF SOLDIER is a place chance for Andrasch, who is an eight-time winning rider in the race.
HOCHKONIG (Nina Baltromei) ran well for second behind ZUCKERHUT after winning a maiden over 2200m at his previous run and he is a place chance for trainer Yasmin Almenrader.
JUWELIER (Umberto Rispoli) is trained in France by Alessandro Botti and made a successful trip to win the G3 Derby Trial when he challenged early in the straight and fought on bravely to hold off PATH OF SOLDIER. He is a place chance.
Andreas Wohler has won the Derby five times and has unbeaten filly LADY CHARLOTTE (Adrie de Vries) taking on the colts. LADY CHARLOTTE won the G3 Diana Oaks Trial (2000m) at Hoppegarten on 8 June. This is much tougher and LADY CHARLOTTE will have to overcome barrier 18.
DELGARDO (Eduardo Pedroza) and NAME LORD (Hugo Boutin) are also place chances.
The first of seven races from Prix Jean Prat Day is carded as S4-1 and will be run at 8.33pm. The G1 Prix Jean Prat is carded as S4-4 and will be run over 1400m on Deauville’s straight course at 10.40pm. The track is rated Good.
The speed should be good with MARANOA CHARLIE (Aurelien Lemaitre) likely to lead. SILIUS (Maxime Guyon) also has good gate speed and will be prominent with CACOFONIX (Stephane Pasquier).
COSMIC YEAR (Colin Keane) took an unbeaten record into the Irish Guineas where he was ridden back in the field early before making good progress from the halfway mark and beating all but FIELD OF GOLD. COSMIC YEAR comes back to 1400m here and he is my win and place selection for trainer Harry Charlton.
Last year’s Middle Park and Dewhurst winner SHADOW OF FLIGHT (William Buick) runs for Charlie Appleby. SHADOW OF FLIGHT finished third in the G1 2000m Guineas (1600m) at Newmarket behind stablemate RULING COURT and then contested G1 Commonwealth Cup (1200m) with a creditable fifth to TIME FOR SANDALS as a short-priced favourite but didn’t have everything go his way and he is also a win and place chance here.
MARANOA CHARLIE is an exciting front-running horse who led and kicked clear in the straight and easily held off SILIUS to win the G3 Prix de Moussac over this distance at ParisLongchamp on 8 June. MARANOA CHARLIE is a place chance for trainer Christopher Head.
SILIUS ran well for second behind MARANOA CHARLIE in the Prix de Moussac and is a place chance and WOODSHAUNA (Christophe Soumillon) won a G3 race over 1200m at Chantilly on 16 May and is a place chance.
Aidan O’Brien has THE LION OF WINTER (Ryan Moore) engaged. He finished 14th in the Epsom Derby where he dropped out in the final few furlongs. THE LION IN WINTER won the G3 Acomb Stakes last year over this distance and Aidan and Ryan won this race with TENEBRISM in 2022.
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