Whether or not you picked Ambitious Dragon as the winner of our Citibank HK Gold Cup last Sunday, I'm sure most of you will have been impressed with the manner of his victory on the day, which looked as comfortable as in the first leg of the Triple Crown, the Stewards’ Cup last month. Douglas Whyte didn't seem to need much effort at all in getting our reigning Horse of the Year flying by the home straight, and he had the race done and dusted well before crossing the wire.
Having said that, I think it was quite a smart and strategic riding performance by Whyte. Starting from Gate 6, he kept Ambitious Dragon in a two-wide position, then approaching the home turn he cleverly made sure his main rivals California Memory and Xtension were held in positions to the inside of his mount. This tactic ensured both horses were kept pocketed while he waited for the right moment to press the button on his horse. By the time California Memory and Xtension were able to move out and find daylight, Whyte and Ambitious Dragon had already set an uncatchable lead.
With the first two legs of the Triple Crown series now wrapped up, many options have been opened up for Ambitious Dragon's Owner Johnson Lam and trainer Tony Millard. They might decide to take the horse to Meydan for the Dubai World Cup or Dubai Duty Free, or perhaps stay in Hong Kong to prepare for the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup; they could then try to make him the first Triple Crown winner since 1994 in the Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup, or head to Tokyo for the Yasuda Kinen in June.
Whatever the connections' eventual decision, I think Ambitious Dragon will remain very competitive as he seems to be approaching peak form now. I'm sure that many of our racing fans will be as eager as I am to learn of his upcoming race plans and see if last season's Mercedes-Benz HK Derby and APQEII Cup winner can take more major honours before the end of this term.
Tonight, the battlefield shifts to Happy Valley, with some of our top Valley performers trying to earn crucial late points in this season's 1O1O Million Challenge finale. All top eight horses on the leaderboard will be contesting tonight’s races, and six of them still have a chance of taking or sharing top prize.
Since we established this Valley series back in the 2003/04 season, it has proved very successful in attracting more horse connections to target their runners at Happy Valley races, thus lifting the overall racing standard at our city track. This is well demonstrated by our reintroduction of pattern racing at the Valley this season with the staging of last month's HKG3 January Cup.
Those of you who have been following the Million Challenge since its early days may recall that the first two editions in 2003/04 and 2004/05 were won by Peter Ng's Dashing Champion and Derek Cruz's Fruity Fruity respectively. These two veteran trainers both have the chance to repeat their success this year as Ng's Super Plus currently stands atop the leaderboard, while Cruz’s Flying Colours can challenge for the top prize if he wins tonight.
Apart from tonight's meeting being the Million Challenge finale, it is also the second of our four Wines in the Valley themed racenights. So at the same time as enjoying a night of extra-special racing action on the track, you can sample some top-class food and wines. In addition this evening, you can enjoy a buy-one-get-one-free wine offer in the Beer Garden between Races 4 and 5, and try your luck at winning a 4G handset in our SMS Quiz Game. So please bring your friends and work colleagues along to the Valley tonight for what promises to be a very memorable evening.
The key races for the 1O1O Million Challenge will be Race 5, 7 and 8 tonight. In Race 5 the Cheong Ming Handicap – a Class 1 event over 1650m – the pace is expected to be good to fast, which will give horses coming from midfield or the back like Vaugirard, Mr Bond, Holiday Sun and Super Satin better chance to perform their best. The race leaders should be Penglai Xianzi or Voile Rouge who start from Gate 9 and Gate 5, with Business As Usual and Hot Shot also going forward. Penglai Xianzi has to work a little bit more in getting to his favourable position in front. He is working well and is a place chance for me, but I still prefer Mr Bond especially because he would somewhat be benefitted from the fast tempo, and would not be stayed three-wide without any cover as he did last time. Business As Usual was disappointing in his last start, but he was very keen in the run and Darren Beadman was concerned about his action. I expect a better performance from him tonight. Vaugirard is an interesting outsider with his body weight being trimmed up. He is working well and I see him as a win and place chance, as well as Holiday Sun from Gate 1 being back to his favourite 1650m distance. Longwah Supreme has trialled but never raced in Happy Valley. He will be racing with a visor for the first time and is a place chance for me this evening.
The Hawthorn Handicap as Race 7 is run as a Class 3 over 1200m, with an extended rating band from 85 to 60 that gives some Class 2 horses a chance to run in this race – one of the finale races for the Million Challenge. The fast pace will be set by Amedeo, Hawthorne, Good Boy Boy and New Glory. New Glory from Gate 3 will be likely to get the box seat. He is for me a place chance in this very open race. Super Plus, current leader of the Million Challenge, has a wide draw of 11. This will make it not easy for him and I see him as a place chance at best. Carry The Zeal is working very well and is the choice of Douglas Whyte. This David Hall-trained runner will be coming from the back of the field and he is for me a win and place chance in this race. The same applies to Happy Yeah Yeah who has to come from Gate 10 like his last win over the same course and distance. Easy Winner ran a good race last time out and is for me a good win and place chance over his favourite distance.
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