Last Sunday, quite a number of Hong Kong horse owners and racing fans joined me and other Club officials at Kranji Racecourse to cheer on our hometown runners at the Singapore Airlines International Cup day. With four highly-rated contenders in the two feature races, I think most of us felt Hong Kong might maintain its recent run of success at this meeting - but sadly that was not to be, as our best performance was Irian’s joint third in the SIA Cup. I'm sure those of you watching the live simulcasts at home also felt a bit disappointed.
It was encouraging, all the same, to see John Moore's Irian make such a nice run, given that he was a bit nervy before the race. Unfortunately, things didn't go so smoothly for California Memory, and I know that Matthew Chadwick's riding of the horse has attracted some media comments in the past couple of days. In my view, the horse was prepared really well, and was in top condition before the race. But the fact that Matthew was unable to restrain the horse after its strong jump, compounded by the tough outside draw, made the circumstances unusually difficult for both horse and jockey.
While our home fans’ disappointment with the performance is entirely understandable, it should be borne in mind that this was the first time both Matthew and the horse had taken part in an International Group 1 race overseas. I believe both of them can learn from the experience and perform better next time.
Meanwhile Sacred Kingdom showed us in the KrisFlyer International Sprint that he is not quite as sharp now as when he was young. I can understand the connections' good intentions to look for a winning run by taking the horse into a handy position and not trailing way behind Rocket Man early in the race, but unfortunately, this race plan didn't work out and he faded out early.
As for Green Birdie, it's been a long and tiring season for him as he has also contested top sprint events in Japan and Dubai this term. He was never really in contention on Sunday, but overall I think his connections should be well satisfied with the horse’s performances over the season. It was always going to be a tough challenge as although he beat Rocket Man last year, the Singapore speedster is clearly now at the peak of his game. His winning run was simply inspirational. What we would all love to see now is a possible encounter between Rocket Man and Australia's latest sprint prodigy, Black Caviar, on our home turf in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint in December.
Though none of our runners could strike success in Singapore this time, we still had some upbeat news as total turnover for the six simulcast races of the SIA Cup day reached HK$119 million, the highest figure for any of our simulcast racedays this season. Some HK$16 million of this will go to the public coffer as betting duty.
I think it was a very encouraging result, and I hope you all will offer us similar support in other upcoming simulcasts including the Epsom Derby race day, Yasuda Kinen and the Royal Ascot meetings next month.
Let’s get back our focus to our Happy Valley race meeting tonight. There will be hosting the final round of our J’aime Happy Wednesday programme. So do take this last opportunity to soak up some Gallic atmosphere while enjoying our night racing at the Valley.
Tonight, we have a Triple Trio jackpot of HK$4.5 million, and I think in the first leg - Wan Tsui Handicap – it could give you a good start for the big prize. The pace is expected to be good to slow, which would favour horses in the front of the field, especially reinforced with the change of winter grass to summer grass for the track. Superior Warrior from Gate 1 should take the lead. Watching from his last trial, he seems to have overcome his health issue when he was found having blood in his trachea in his last start. He is for me the horse to beat and should be able to set a good to slow pace, with Diamond Rainbow and Think Big joining him in the lead. These two runners are also capable for money finish, despite both of them would have to press on being drawn Gate 9 and 11. The consistent Star Of Fame can also get a place finish starting from barrier 5, while Cars King Prawn, which drops to Class 4 and have an ideal draw with Gate 2, can also give a challenge as chasing from midfield.
I think the Japan Racing Association Trophy is the top race of the day, as I expect it to be a very competitive Class 2 event over 1200m. The pace is expected to be fast, but I would recommend you to have a close look at the tracks performance in previous races while making your studies. Good Words, Happy Reunion, and Flying Colours all use to go forward, as well as the in-form horse Jumbo Gold who is at risk to be trapped wide. Good Words is working well recently and with the Tony Cruz stable in good form, he will be my top choice in this race. Both Able Speed and Elite Sixty-Six from John Moore's yard are in nice form. Both of them can give Good Words a run for the money, particularly Elite Sixty-Six who returns to Valley race this time. Charity Spirit performed gallantly in his narrow defeats in past two starts. I will be interested to see if he can get a breakthrough when he raced in a Class 2 event this time.
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