I have just finished watching the simulcast of the Cox Plate and what a treat it was to witness the wonder mare Winx. She is truly one of the best Australian champions we have seen in a long time and to defeat her main rival, Hartnell, by such a wide margin, was truly awesome. Winx emulated the great mare Sunline as an impressive winner of consecutive Cox Plates – highlighting the quality of such an accomplishment.
It was quite unfortunate that Joao Moreira could not make it to ride in the race. As you all know, the Club maintains a delicate balance of jockeys on our roster, and their first obligation is always to Hong Kong. We certainly like to accommodate requests for our jockeys to participate in the leading races around the world, an obvious sign of the quality of our riding ranks, and are appreciative of the understanding of our racing colleagues and horse connections relative to this unique occurrence. Every effort must be made to accommodate the long-standing bookings of our Hong Kong Owners. As there was a concern that the backlog of cancelled flights caused by the typhoon could keep them from missing some or all of their rides on Sunday, we simply could not take the chance.
In my experience in Hong Kong, it is rare, but not uncommon for us to be affected by two typhoons within a week, but it is indeed a unique occurrence for that to happen in October.
Inclement weather threatened our races at Happy Valley on Wednesday, as we recorded over 330mm, or 13 inches, of rain within the 24 hours before our races were to begin, including nearly 150mm which fell during the four hours before our first race. We are so very fortunate to have a track that drains better than any in the world, but that fact was really proven on Wednesday, and after just two or three hours with no rain, the course was even labeled as good.
It could not have been possible without the great effort of our Tracks Team colleagues, who spend countless hours ensuring the fair and safe footings for our horses and jockeys. Our world-class track performed incredibly well despite the deluge and enabled a night we won’t soon forget. The storms came again on Friday with typhoon Haima and while certainly strong, the clean-up was swift and will enable us to have to hold some fantastic races on Sunday.
That is important as many of our top horses will feature in the two highly exciting G2 events, namely the Premier Bowl and the Oriental Watch 55th Anniversary Sha Tin Trophy tomorrow. Some of these horses, including Aerovelocity, Lucky Bubbles, Designs On Rome and Blazing Speed, will make their seasonal debut and start their tune-ups for our December showpiece.
I also invite you to join us in the theme on-course with our Gentleman’s Bow Tie Day. Many around Sha Tin will sport a bow tie, including myself, and I hope you will embrace this theme for the second consecutive year.
UK-based Brazilian jockey Silvestre De Sousa will also join our fray and commence his riding stint in Hong Kong tomorrow. Having finished second behind Jim Crowley in the British flat season that just ended last week, Silvestre had some good times here last season as he rode 16 wins in total. He should be a jockey in demand and I believe many fans will be anxious to see if he can open his account from his eight mounts tomorrow.
The Premier Bowl is run as race 7 and is a Group 2 event run under handicap conditions which will give the international Group 1 horses like Peniaphobia and Aerovelocity a major challenge. The pace should be good, but there are various pace scenarios we could see in this race. Aerovelocity has great gate speed and he could either lead or stalk the lead. Domineer could also go forward and lead, while Dashing Fellow should also be close. Not Listenin’tome will also likely be prominent. Peniaphobia can go forward or settle off the lead. The wide draw for Blizzard, Lucky Bubbles and Amazing Kids could all impact them in some capacity.
In this intriguing race my first pick is Blizzard despite having a wide gate but he has the advantage of a significant weight advantage of 18 pounds to Peniaphobia and Lucky Bubbles will have to give him 16 pounds. Blizzard had to be checked twice in his last start and dashed strongly in mid-track in 21.95 seconds. My second pick is Lucky Year who beat Blizzard in his last start and is working very well too. I like Thewizardofoz who is working well and the choice of Joao Moreira as a win and place chance, and he is aimed at a sprint campaign for John Size, hopefully showing his full potential this year.
One should still not underestimate Peniaphobia and Lucky Bubbles who are both working well and Peniaphobia having the benefit of a race under his belt this season, but this will not be an easy task giving away so much weight. The same applies to Amazing Kids who won convincingly in his last start over 1000m.
The Oriental Watch 55th Anniversary Sha Tin Trophy is run as race nine and is run as a Group 2 under handicap conditions with a good to slow pace which should give horses on the pace a slight advantage.
Beauty Flame has a strong leader profile and should be by himself on the lead. Contentment should follow him but will carry a big weight at 133 pounds and probably will not lead. Flame Hero has led in the past and could go forward. Blazing Speed should settle midpack along with Sun Jewellery. Rapper Dragon should get a great inside run from midfield with Joyful Trinity behind him and will likely need some luck.
Joyful Trinity is working very well and the significant weight advantage he has in relation to horses like Beauty Only as top weight is meaningful, and he should be the horse to beat especially because my current favourite for this season’s 4YO Classic Series, Rapper Dragon, is not at full fitness, and should need this race for his preparation. I expect a good showing from Sun Jewellery even if it is his first start, and he is working well and should get a good place in running. Despite the top weight, Beauty Only is a win and place chance as well as Contentment, who should get into a perfect position behind Beauty Flame who is, in my view, a place chance.
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