I had a very short but enjoyable trip to England for the British Champions Day meeting on Saturday before returning to Hong Kong. As for the racing in the UK, which I’m sure many of you enjoyed via our simulcast coverage, Almanzor was truly scintillating in landing a Champion Stakes double, having won the Irish version a month ago. Minding has proven a truly special filly with her win in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. Every win in her career since her maiden victory has been in Group 1 company – that’s seven wins at Group 1 level from 12 lifetime starts.
Unfortunately, I had to rush back to Hong Kong and was not able to see my horse, Now We Can, run in Chantilly for the G2 Prix du Conseil de Paris, where he finished third on unsuitable ground. Alain de Royer-Dupre trained the winner, One Foot In Heaven, and said immediately after the race his is aiming to run the horse in the LONGINES Hong Kong Vase being a dual-Group 2 winner and a solid sixth in this year’s Arc. It will be interesting to see if he makes it into the field because we expect strong overseas participation, especially from our friends in Japan.
I made it back for most of the races on Sunday and took keen interest, as I’m sure you did as well, in our last race, the third career start for the much discussed Pakistan Star. The Tony Cruz-trained three-year-old showed his latest progress with a much improved jump at the start. And he adopted his usual running tactics as a backmarker. He did show a good turn of foot again but Mr Bogart enjoyed the advantage from his proactive approach, hitting the front early and held for his lead to defeat Pakistan Star comfortably at the finish.
Having said that it was still an impressive performance for a young horse who had his first run in a Class 2 race. The sectional time also told the same as Pakistan Star finished the last 400m in a lightning split of 21.65 seconds. I think he’s possibly now better suited to some longer distances and will continue to follow his progression with great interest. We shall see how he delivers another strong performance in his next start. Take nothing away from the winner, either. I think Mr Bogart is likely bound for group-level company later this season.
Tonight we feature the third of our four Oktoberfest meetings. Of course, Oktoberfest is the first of our various themed events this year, all of which are very popular with different segments of our customers. The beer garden is very often home to a most electric atmosphere, and one of the most unique places in all of racing. Invariably, throughout my many travels, industry executives stop and ask me about Happy Wednesday. How do we manage to create such a fantastic environment for our race fans? Besides the tremendous effort from our many teams working together to ensure a great experience, the natural cityscape around Happy Valley, which is near impossible to replicate anywhere in the worlds, provides such a wonderful backdrop for our horses and races.
The fantastic vibe of Happy Wednesday is captured in this great new music video below, and I hope you all have plenty of happy Wednesdays throughout the season.
This morning, the track in Happy Valley is good-to-yielding after 145.5 mm of rain within the last 24 hours as of 9AM, another fantastic demonstration of how much rain our course can withstand. The weather is supposed to gradually improve so while there will be some rainclouds approaching Hong Kong island later today, I would not be surprised to see the track on the good side by the beginning of tonight’s meeting.
Tonight’s fifth race is the Fakei Cup, a race originally run in Hong Kong in 1856, and is a Class 3 handicap run over 1650 metres of the C course. A field of ten is assembled and the pace is likely to be good to slow. Mr Potential led and ran well at Sha Tin but did not show such speed at Happy Valley last time. With Kei Chiong onboard, I think he will probably go forward to lead in a field where there does not seem to be too much early pace. Wah May Baby likes to go forward and could be close if Mr Potential does not lead, and A Beautiful could also be in a handy position. Northern Falls will likely slot midfield after his good closing kick last time, as well as the newcomer Dinozzo. Ka Ying Kid is at risk of running wide. Inventor should probably be in midfield or behind with Team Sweet. Winnam and Royal Partner are likely to trail after settling.
There will be plenty of attention on Inventor looking for four consecutive wins. He is now up 23 points in the ratings since May and has clearly maintained his form. He is working well and is a solid win and place chance again. My main chance is A Beautiful, now getting Joao Moreira. He seems likely to get a very good trip from barrier four and would also enjoy the going if it remains good-to-yielding, as his lone win in Hong Kong came on such footing, and he owns a win in Australia over soft conditions. This is his first race over a longer distance and he looked like he would appreciate that following his last race third-placing. Mr Potential is a placing chance for me given his possible advantage as a leader in this field considering the lack of other pace.
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