We are now in the middle of the Easter holidays and I’m sure many of you are enjoying time with your family and friends. However, despite it being a holiday period, it’s still a busy and exciting time for all of us at the Club, as we are entering the week of the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup, followed by the Champions Mile on 4 May and the 35th Asian Racing Conference, which we are hosting in the city in a fortnight’s time.
I believe many of you will have noticed that there has been increasing coverage of the AP QEII Cup in local papers and online media in the past week. In fact, some of the overseas horses have already arrived in Hong Kong, as we welcomed the two Japanese runners Epiphaneia and Uncoiled on Friday, as they make their final preparations for the race. The two South African runners Vercingetorix and Sanshaawes are on their way, and are scheduled to check in to the quarantine stables at Sha Tin tomorrow morning. All four of these overseas stars will give the strong home team some serious competition next weekend.
Looking slightly further ahead, to the Champions Mile, just last Wednesday we announced the list of selected runners for this G1 event. I'm delighted that there are also four top class overseas invitees for this event, which based on the quality of the 14 horses engaged, looks almost certain to retain its place among the top 50 Group 1 races in the world, as published annually by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.
Two of the international horses have shown extremely promising form early in the year in Dubai and Australia respectively, namely two-time South African horse of the year Variety Club who won impressively last time in the Godolphin Mile, and Irish raider Gordon Lord Byron who notched a win in the G1 George Ryder Stakes in Australia late last month. These two overseas milers are classy individuals, and along with Mshawish from France and Meiner Lacrima from Japan, they provide formidable opposition to the Hong Kong team.
Our home runners have a fabulous record in the Champions Mile, having won all nine editions since the race was opened to international competition in 2005. It looks like we again have a strong hand, including top class four year old Able Friend, and also Dan Excel, who will both carry John Moore’s hopes of winning this race for a fifth consecutive year. In addition, the talents of the LONGINES Hong Kong Mile one-two Glorious Days and Gold-Fun, as well as two-time LONGINES Hong Kong Cup winner California Memory are well known to us all. It is extremely rewarding for us to be able to present these two exciting international contests in the space of a week, featuring this many world-class horses, and I hope you enjoy the build up to two of the biggest races of our season.
Before then, I hope you all enjoy the rest of your Easter holidays. For those of you eager for some racing action, I hope you will join us on Monday at Sha Tin racecourse for a 10 race card. Easter Monday marks a slow down in local racing as it is the only fixture over a ten-day period, leading into the G1 Audemars Piguet QEII Cup and the final quarter of the 2013-14 racing season.
The mixed meeting features the Class 2 Lusitano Challenge Cup as Race 9 on the all weather at 1200m. Smart Volatility was an easy winner in his only attempt on this surface in February. He has drawn the rail and no runner has won from that draw in over a year. Still, he is a win and place chance for me and may give Howard Cheng his first win since returning from injury.
The pace should be fast through the early sections with California Bounty,London China Town, Access Years, Multivictory and Turin Pearl all likely to join Smart Volatility in the first half of the field. I look for a much improved effort from Multivictory and also give place chances to Noble Alpha and Turin Pearl.
In the Hong Kong Lions Cup, a Class 3 over the 1000m straight as Race 7, the super consistent Pure Force will need his very best to defeat Tango Fire,Peniaphobia and Choice Treasure.
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