On Sunday we staged back-to-back HKG2 events at Sha Tin, with Rich Unicorn winning the sprint event, the Premier Bowl, and California Memory emerging the victor of the Sha Tin Trophy over the metric mile. In the former race I suppose some racing fans would have been a bit saddened to see Entrapment finishing third and suffering the first defeat of his career. But considering that he was a bit keen in the early stages and slightly held up at the top of the home straight, I don’t think this was a bad run at all and I hope to see him maintain his progress and perform even better next time out. It was also pleasing to see Rich Unicorn and the race runner-up Little Bridge returning to their best, and they too will now be key contenders in the Cathay Pacific Jockey Club Sprint later this month.
As for the Sha Tin Trophy, race winner California Memory has, in his last three starts in Hong Kong, finished the final 400m in very fast sectionals of less than 22 seconds, and on Sunday his dazzling strong kick earned him yet another impressive victory. I’m glad that, in addition to Ambitious Dragon, it seems we have another high class runner who has every chance of matching strides with the overseas contenders in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup. Placegetters Xtension and Thumbs Up delivered decent performances too, and these two are also ones to watch in the Cathay Pacific Jockey Club Mile and Cup. All in all, it was another exciting day of racing and I’m looking forward to seeing more up-and-coming horses gearing up for the big races in the coming weeks.
Racing fans can enjoy a short break locally as we have not arranged any midweek racing in Hong Kong. But this doesn’t mean there will be any shortage of racing action as today, in line with our usual arrangements on the first Tuesday of November, we will be bringing you live Melbourne Cup action in our simulcast from Flemington Racecourse.
Originally, following Mr Medici last year, Hong Kong was again going to have a representative in this major international event, but Mighty High’s below-par performance in the Caulfield Cup led his trainer John Moore to decide to send the horse back to Hong Kong. But the absence of a Hong Kong element doesn’t mean the race lacks attractiveness as 11 of the 23 runners in the field are coming from Europe, and they will face some champion Australian runners. The strong European presence this year clearly reflects the ever-increasing status and popularity of this, the richest G1 handicap event in the world. I’m sure it will be an exciting race to watch and I’ll be looking to see if Alain de Royer-Dupre’s Americain can follow in the footsteps of Makybe Diva by recording back-to-back victories, under Club jockey Gerald Mosse in this prestigious Australian racing event.
Like never before this year the Melbourne Cup is dominated by European horses which just arrived or being now in training for some time with Australian trainers. I have arrived in Melbourne this morning and it looks like we will get some showers here. The key horse for me is still Americain, even he has to carry top weight of 128 pounds and it will be not an easy task for him from Gate 15. He is the benchmark being back in form and he has the class and end speed to win the race. The pace should be strong with Glass Harmonium and Jukebox Jury going forward with the German-bred and Bart Cummings-trained Illo close up which is for me an outside chance. I like Dunaden a lot who is ridden by Christophe Lemaire. He followed the footsteps of Americain’s preparation last year and has finished in front of Americain twice in France. At First Sight is another horse with a chance for me being a runner-up in the Epsom Derby and running a good race last time as second in his first start after six weeks. As a light weight Tullamore is an interesting candidate being second to Americain in his last start but this time meeting him 11lb better than in his last start.
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