I believe many of you enjoyed, as I did, the entertaining Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Classic Cup this past Sunday. I watched the race together with Mr Reiner Hoeps, Chief Operating Officer of our race sponsor Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Limited, from a great vantage point right next to the track, and we were thrilled to see Zaidan and Sweet Orange produce such a tight finish in front of us. I think overall it was a good ride by Olivier Doleuze as he helped Zaidan to break clear early, giving his horse every chance to win the race. Olivier’s jockeyship brought that very outcome but just by the slenderest margin, as the great turn of foot shown by Sweet Orange in the final stage of the race was equally impressive.
It appears at this stage that the Derby is quite open this year; a number of promising runners have already shown their strong credentials as they aim to claim the top prize. Apart from Sunday’s race winner Zaidan, Sweet Orange’s great dashing ability and fast sectional of 22.26 seconds underlined his credential and many would now reckon him to be the horse to beat on 18 March.
Two other of John Moore’s runners also showed their strong quality, one of those being Dominant. This British import did not travel smoothly in the home straight, but he still managed to snatch a close third amidst a strong field. Another of Moore’s hopefuls, Dan Excel, ran five deep on the home turn and I believe he should improve further for the race. Together with other nice young prospects such as Military Attack and the John Size-trained Fay Fay, whose performance was slightly disappointing in the Classic Cup, I will be looking forward to an exciting and competitive Derby provided that they are selected to the final line-up for the ultimate target of the four-year-old series next month.
It’s always pleasant to see these new forces improving with each race, as in the near future they will bring important new blood to our top echelon of runners in Hong Kong. And we have been equally active in our jockeys rank by recruiting more top riders from around the world to compete in Hong Kong in recent times. This season both Neil Callan and Maxime Guyon, who came riding as Club Jockey for the second time, have done quite well, and they were well received by connections. Neil has already landed nine winners and was way more than his winning tally of five last season, while Maxime might be considered a bit unlucky in that he has accumulated 13 seconds and thirds each on top of five winners, before his riding stint this winter came to a premature end.
Following Callan, Guyon and Mickael Barzalona, record-breaking Italian jockey Umberto Rispoli will begin his two-month riding stint in Hong Kong, starting with our races at Happy Valley tonight. Umberto arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday and he immediately proceeded to Sha Tin to attend the races, so as to meet different trainers, administrators and media to try to familiarise himself with the system here. In fact, he also paid a visit to Hong Kong a few weeks ago to understand more about the life here and how Hong Kong racing works. All these efforts, to a certain extent, show his dedication and his determination to work hard for good performance here. He will have two booked rides tonight, for the Sean Woods and Richard Gibson stables, and I will closely follow his efforts. Hopefully he will get some luck and achieve some nice results.
Between the exciting Hong Kong Group 1 races, the Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Classic Cup and the upcoming Citibank Hong Kong Gold Cup this Sunday, we come to the midweek Happy Valley race meeting, which will be the second last one before this season’s 1O1O Million Challenge series concludes. Two of the current top 10 contenders, namely Hawthorne and Super Plus, will contest tonight’s feature race the Rotary Centenary Challenge Cup. It will be interesting to see if either of them can land another victory to take the lead in the series.
Let me also remind you that we will be hosting the Wines in the Valley themed races tonight. Last season we hosted this event for the first time, offering racegoers at Happy Valley the chance to taste fine wine of different countries and origins. It was rather popular and well-received among racegoers in those three race nights last season, so we have accordingly increased the number of these themed race nights to four this season. Hopefully you and your friends will enjoy sampling a choice of 50 selected wines and other special food treats, music performances and catwalk shows from local artists, as well as the exciting races available at the Valley this evening.
Back to the eight races on the card, the Rotary Centenary Challenge Cup is run over the minimum distance of 1000m. It attracted a small but competitive field. With nice early speed, the pace should at least be good and may be faster! Hawthorne and Vintage Hussler are both working well recently and well drawn tonight. Both are likely to lead together. Flashing Guy, who is also working well, should follow both leaders with Golden Bauhinia, Super Plus and Prosperous well positioned behind them. Hawthorne has a nice chance to win the 1O1O Million Challenge and its connections will try everything to win the bonus. He’s a win and place chance but the top weight makes him vulnerable to Prosperous, who is capable to produce a late burst and would not mind even some softer surface. With Douglas Whyte on board, it will be a dangerous opponent to Hawthorne. Flashing Guy should at least have place chance, as well as Super Plus who is also in contention for the Challenge, as a win which will award him with an additional 15 points and put him to the top of the leaderboard.
The Sha Tin Handicap run as Race 4 is another 1000m race but this time as Class 4 and the pace is expected to be good to fast. Many early pace horses will likely be fighting for the lead. Best placed should be Vital Smart, Ride On The Fire, Namjong Blossoms and Mi Savvy. Mi Savvy is working well and his body weight has trimmed up. With the Gate 1, he is my favourite for this race and a good banker for the Triple Trio. Hannibal Barca missed some work late last month but since then his work has been okay and is a place chance in this race. The body weight of Ride On The Fire has gone up, but his work was fine and I still think he can repeat his good performance from last time. Vital Smart has shown nice improvement and can be an interesting outsider with a place chance. O'Halo has shown good form in his first race over 1000m in Sha Tin and was a plugging 4th in his second start over the same course but the 1200m. He has never trialed or raced in Happy Valley before, which raises questions on whether he can handle the Valley track. Even he is not drawn in a good barrier, but on form alone he would be a place chance in this race.
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