In December, the Club jointly hosted the International Conference on the Equine Disease Free Zone and during the visit to the Conghua Training Centre following the Conference, the European Commission’s representatives carried out a site inspection. Two weeks ago, the EC adopted a decision from the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed which will treat horses in Conghua’s Equine Disease Free Zone with the same health status as those in Hong Kong. This is a formal recognition of the outstanding biosecurity standards of CTC recognised by the European Union’s 28 member countries and will continue to enable the temporary movement of horses between the EU and Hong Kong for international races at Sha Tin and for our horses to travel there.
We have also experienced some progress relative to the situation we described several months ago regarding the Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources limitation of horse movement between Australia and Hong Kong.
Since the beginning of October, Australia required any horse that visits Hong Kong on a temporary basis to serve 180 days in quarantine in a third jurisdiction before being permitted to return to Australia, and the same would be required for any horse from Hong Kong wishing to go to Australia. This includes not only active race horses, thus effectively eliminating the chance of any Australian horses competing in our international races, and vice versa, but also greatly impacts the plans of Hong Kong Owners who may have wished to retire their horses to Australia.
I recently had a productive call with David Littleproud, Australia’s Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, and one of the key elements for the Australian assessment of the Equine Disease Free Zone in Conghua is now underway.
It was a fascinating day at Sha Tin on Sunday as racing fans were treated to some brilliant Group 1 racing. Focusing first on the Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup, it was indeed a memorable performance from the winner Time Warp, becoming the first horse in Hong Kong to complete 2000m under two minutes, stopping the clock in 1:59.97s. This lowered the mark of Jim And Tonic, set in 1999 when winning the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup.
Werther was very game in defeat, running a close second, while Seasons Bloom and Pakistan Star both ran tremendous races too, well clear of the rest of the field. Many eyes were on Pakistan Star for his performance in this race and given a lack of racing which dated to June, he performed incredibly well. It was a thrilling race and one which I think our racing fans will remember for a long time.
In the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup, Beauty Generation landed another big-race score, taking his total season earnings to more than HK$23 million, having won four Group-level races and placing in a fifth. Beat The Clock put in another solid Group 1 performance, but might be better suited to the sprinting trips of 1200m while Fifty Fifty confirmed his Stewards’ Cup run and looks promising for a top win in the future.
Time Warp and Beauty Generation have held their form since succeeding in our big December internationals and are a testament to their trainers for such deft handling. Much credit also goes to jockey Zac Purton, who partnered both and claimed two more feature race wins to add to his impressive haul.
Both horses will likely be well-supported in the coming months with our spring international races on the not-too-distant horizon.
Racing will continue at Sha Tin tonight, but on the all-weather track as we have eight races on our card and the feature is the Class 2 Hoi Yuen Handicap, which goes as Race 7 over 1200m. The pace is projected to be fast with California Fortune, Gunnison and Pablosky all likely to show good speed and the trio of Blocker Dee, Jing Jing Win and Momentum Lucky tracking closely. Fight Hero should also be closer to the pace given his rail draw, with Big Time Baby in midfield. Team Fortune and Perpetual Joyance should be behind them with Line Seeker and Great Honour near the rear.
Both Fight Hero and Team Fortune are course and distance specialists, with a combined seven wins over the 1200m of the Sha Tin all-weather track between them. While Fight Hero might be a closer to the pace than normal given his rail draw, the pace should still be fast and he may need a bit of luck in running. He won an equivalent Class 2 event at this meeting a year ago and is a major win and place chance. Team Fortune could get a good stalking trip behind the speed and has never been out of the placings from five tries over this trip. He is working well and is another win and place hope.
Several others have chances in this very competitive contest. Big Time Baby, like Team Fortune, should benefit from the strong pace and is a major competitor in this race. While he tried Class 2 on the turf, he is back on the dirt where he has a win and two placings this season and enjoys a good draw in barrier four. Jing Jing Win has trialed well on the dirt previously and is working well, drawing Joao Moreira for the first time, and could improve after a decent turf effort last time when drawn wide at Happy Valley. Tonight’s low draw should be to his advantage and he is one of the main players. Gunnison makes his Hong Kong debut tonight and has trialed well on dirt, but is not likely to be at full fitness yet and is, at best, a place hope.
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