I believe many of you were pretty impressed with the wonderful performances of Able Friend and Contentment in our feature races last Sunday. This week we took a race break in midweek but still made an important announcement on Wednesday, revealing the first entries for the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races on 13 December.
This year we have 209 nominations for our four G1s in this Sha Tin showcase meeting. Among them include 77 G1 winners – seven more than the tally we had last year – also four of the top 10 horses, by rating, in the world, namely local powerhouses Able Friend and Designs On Rome, last year’s Vase winner Flintshire and Prince Of Wales’s Stakes winner Free Eagle.
I’m really delighted with the huge interest shown by many of the world’s leading horsemen and major horse connections. It is their staunch support which reflected the premier status of our flagship international meeting, living up to its billing as the Turf World Championships.
I’ve just watched some of the Australian nominees’ latest performances in our simulcast of the Mackinnon Stakes earlier today. There’s plenty more to come as some of the nominated horses from the US and Europe will be running in the Breeders’ Cup later tonight, and I hope you join me in watching the performances of many other runners through our simulcasts on the Tenno Sho Autumn tomorrow, and the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday.
Racing on Sunday is at Happy Valley, a rare Sunday day meeting there for us. We have consecutive weeks without racing – the first was held as a weather contingency day while the second is to allow for proper winter seeding of our grass courses.
The Cha Kwo Ling Handicap is run as a Class 2 over 1200m and is the last and best quality race of the day. The pace is expected to be good with a number of strong leading options in the race. Precision King should be able to lead from barrier two and having the benefit of Alvin Ng's five-pound claim, with Charity Joy going forward to overcome draw ten. Accepted should be well positioned on the rail with Happy Bao Bei on his outside. This could leave Harbour Punk posted wide.
Why Why could be next but has missed the start in two recent barrier trials and may have to come from further back which would give Strathmore and All Great Friends a good position in midfield while Eroico and San Nicasio placed behind midfield. Why Why, Big Four and Berlini would have come from the back which, with the good pace, is not necessarily a major disadvantage.
Eroico has to carry top weight but is working very well and is a win and place chance for me. Strathmore is working very well too but never has raced or trialed in Happy Valley which is a risk. I prefer All Great Friends over him. Charity Joy is more a place chance for me. An interesting horse is Accepted who won a Happy Valley barrier trial over 1200m and finished very strongly, while well drawn well in gate one.
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