Last Sunday, in the three Cathay Pacific Jockey Club races, we saw a glimpse of some of the major local contenders ahead of our December internationals. But intriguingly these three Group 2 events may have raised more questions than they answered, as all three of the heavily-backed favourites – Entrapment, Ambitious Dragon and California Memory – fell to surprising defeats.
In my view, though, it would far too early to write off the winning chances of any of these three top horses next month, as they all showed some strong qualities in defeat. Entrapment gave a gallant chase in the Sprint after settling in midfield, while in the Cup race, California Memory could not find a clear run in the entire home straight, and did quite well in the end even to battle through for fourth place.
Among them all, I think Ambitious Dragon in the Mile was the most unfortunate. The horse looked in excellent shape but he broke very sharply at the start, which left his jockey Maxime Guyon with little option but to settle him in a more forward position than he wanted, and he found himself racing four-wide around the final turn. In the circumstances, I don't think it was a bad run at all, and he was only caught by Destined For Glory in the very last few strides.
Looking at the results from a different perspective, I think they will definitely add further excitement to the International Races as we have now have three more horses that have put themselves forward as very serious contenders for the home team, namely Little Bridge, Destined For Glory and Thumbs Up. They all look well capable of challenging the top overseas contenders on 11 December, as do the favourites they defeated and a number of the other placegetters.
I can tell you that over the past two days since these run-up races were held, many of my Racing Division colleagues have been working well into the late hours to finalise the lists of selected runners for our four CXHKIR races next month. Apart from holding review meetings to assess the form of our top local contenders, they need to have extensive discussions with the connections of overseas entries to reconfirm their intentions for these four international G1s events.
This year, the number of local and overseas horses entered for the CXHKIR exceeded 300, including a record 88 G1 winners, so you can imagine that narrowing the list down to no more than 14 in each race is a pretty challenging task. But it's a nice challenge to have, as it demonstrates the world racing industry's ever-growing interest in being a part of our Turf World Championships. So we don't mind at all working late into the night, if it means we can bring our racing fans and visitors the most formidable line-up possible.
I'm pleased to say that tonight is the night when all will be revealed, as we will announce the chosen local and overseas contenders during our Happy Valley race meeting. So please make sure you come along this evening to hear the news first-hand. And don't forget that this is also the second of our Fashion Styles the Valley themed meetings, so you can also enjoy lots of other stylish and exciting on-course programmes with your friends.
For the eight races on tonight's programme, the St Andrew's Challenge Quaich (Handicap) is a very competitive Class 2 event over 1650m. The expected pace is good to fast which should give horses coming from the back of the field a better chance to perform. Penglai Xianzi is expected to lead but should come under pressure from King Al Akbar which will make his intention to dictate the pace being more difficult. He still has a place chance for me but the pace of the race should favour Kyara, who is drawn Gate 11 and will be in the back of the field. My other favourite is Happy Tumbler who is working very well and was beaten last time out only by a neck. An outsider I like is Osvaldo whose trackwork is good and he was a little bit unlucky last time.
The Forfar Handicap also appears to be a very exciting Class 3 race over the mile, but the pace in this race is expected to be on the good to slow side which favours horses in the front of the field. Lucky Warrior who is in tremendous form should take the lead and try dictating the pace from the front. He has not run in Happy Valley before, but was shown around the track in a barrier trial. In regard to his form, he has a very good chance but I still have slight reservation on whether he will be able to translate his decent Sha Tin form to the Valley. Lunar Reflections has a good chance for me as he's working well and expected to be positioned behind the leaders. Meanwhile, I like Mr Bond for a place even he has to come from the back of the field, as well as Very Well who will come from the back too and finished strongly in his last race.
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