Over the past fortnight we announced the list of top-class international runners who will be running in the BMW Champions Mile on 25 April and the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup on 1 May. But unfortunately there are a few overseas runners who have had to cancel their runs in Hong Kong, with the latest withdrawals being Red Jazz in the Champions Mile and Cape Blanco in the APQEII Cup.
As I understand, Red Jazz, who is owned by our Club’s former chairman Ronald Arculli, was originally due to board the flight to Hong Kong yesterday. The horse, however, suffered minor setbacks after he took his final gallop before flying to Hong Kong earlier this week. After careful consideration his connections opted not to take the risks involved and consequently decided to withdraw the horse from the contest. As for Cape Blanco, it was travel issues and available flight schedules that forced the connections to reluctantly make their decision to withdraw from the race.
It’s a pity to hear these two good horses cannot make their trips to Hong Kong. In fact, I believe the horse connections are always delighted to be invited to take part in a major international race, but different factors – which are sometimes beyond the connections’ and the race organisers’ control – may affect or hinder their horse’s availability and participation in the race. In my view, it’s always not easy to have all the best runners to take part and perform in a major event. Having said that, quite a number of Dubai Carnival performers will still be coming to Hong Kong this time, and I believe these two international Group 1 events will be extremely competitive and exciting nevertheless.
In regard to horse arrivals, I know that Mike de Kock-trained dual Musir (Champions Mile) and River Jetez (APQEII) have entered our quarantine stable at Sha Tin Racecourse last night. Another Champions Mile contender Royal Bench will also arrive in Hong Kong shortly this afternoon, followed by other overseas contenders next week.
In our two international races there are seven overseas runners, and they come from four different countries. On a positive note, the visiting connections, together with racing journalists and racing fans from their respective countries, will bring additional benefits and income to the local tourism sector. These races will also be broadcast for racing fans’ viewing worldwide, which puts Hong Kong into a racing spotlight and attract great attention on the international racing front.
In our Hong Kong International Races last December, some of our overseas racing partners also set up individual pools to accept their racing fans’ bets on our races that day. In total, the gross amount of such betting money exceeded HK$90 million, which was a very positive result. I know some of our overseas partners will take similar betting arrangements during the BMW Champions Mile and APQEII Cup race days, and I believe this will serve as another good model and example for our commingling development in the future.
While we look forward to our international races for the next two weeks, let me remind you that tomorrow’s races are also rather special as it will be a daytime race meeting at Happy Valley. There will consist of 10 races, including two trophy events on the card. In the Lusitano Challenge Cup, it is expected to be run at a good pace, with Time After Time, Best Fit and Horse Galore going forward. Supreme Fay Fay should be well positioned along the rail and I think he will have a good chance to be in the money. Best Fit is not proven at the Valley 1200m, but I think he should stay the distance with his pedigree. He’s working well and I think he has a nice chance to win this race. As a debutant, Time After Time is an interesting horse who has shown his ability in a barrier trial over 1200m that he can lead comfortably. In my view, he’s also a runner which should be in contention.
The Hong Kong Exchanges Challenge Cup (Handicap) is expected to be run at a good to slow pace. There are a number of good horses in the field but many of them have not proven at the distance of 2200m. This makes predicting the outcome of the race to be a real challenge! Packing Ok and Vitality Express are likely to lead, with Absolute Hedge and Super Pistachio probably be the two horses following the two frontrunners. I think horses in the front of the field have a slight advantage and I expect Packing Ok and Vitality Express to be in the finish. Super Pistachio is finding back his form, but he has not done well at the Valley and I prefer Fearless who is in tremendous form recently. For other outsiders, I like Vigor Delight as he should have no issue for the step up in distance.
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