I believe many racing fans have already followed all or some of our four Royal Ascot simulcasts that we have taken this week. Among the exciting features, we saw Blue Point win the King’s Stand Stakes on Tuesday and Poet’s Word land the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Wednesday. Both Group 1 winners ran in Hong Kong this season – Blue Point finished ninth to Ivictory in April’s Chairman’s Sprint Prize, while Poet’s Word ran sixth behind Time Warp in the LONGINES Hong Kong Cup last year. This, to a certain extent, indicates the strength of the overseas raiders taking part in the Hong Kong’s top-line features and it is always nice to see these equine stars keep winning major races after having run in Hong Kong.
There has been the exciting announcement of the Ascot World Pool this weekend that means, from next year, pari-mutuel wagers in the UK market with Ascot and Totepool on the Royal Ascot meeting will be commingled with Hong Kong’s pools. We are honoured to provide a global tote offering for one of the world’s leading racing festival brands. This establishes the Club as a global hub for commingling in which our world-class wagering operations is recognised as a leader in integrity and management processes.
It is a terrific opportunity for customers in both Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, with increased liquidity providing stronger value propositions. I believe that this is the beginning of a new age for international racing and hope that we can have more ‘World Pool’ opportunities in the near future.
Continuing with international racing, our 2015/16 Horse of the Year Werther becomes the first overseas raider in 21 years to contest the Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin on Sunday.
I received many questions from racing fans asking why we are not showing this race even though Werther is participating. Unfortunately, we are not permitted to do so as current regulations are very restrictive in terms of the number of Simulcast Days and Races to which we are allowed. When we allocated the simulcast slots earlier this season, we could not have anticipated that any Hong Kong horse was aiming at this race, as the final decision to take Werther was made only three weeks ago by the John Moore stable. This shows once again that our current regulatory framework is too restrictive for racing.
Having said that, Werther will have taken great benefit from his run in the Lion Rock Trophy earlier this month and I hope he can perform to his best and mount a great challenge against some of the top Japanese middle-distance gallopers in what is their spring grand prix event.
Tomorrow at Sha Tin we will host our last two pattern races of the season, the Premier Plate and Premier Cup, with eight runners set to line up in each of the G3 features. In the thrilling jockeys’ premiership race, Zac Purton and Joao Moreira rode three wins apiece last weekend so the five-win difference between them remained unchanged. Each of them has a strong book of rides tomorrow, with Zac and Joao partnering Pick Number One and Conte respectively – both horses are seeking their sixth win this campaign.
Having said that, the features are the Group 3 Premier Plate and Group 3 Premier Cup. Exultant is one of three runners for Tony Cruz in the eight-horse Premier Plate. After finishing third to Ping Hai Star in the BMW Derby, Exultant has continued to perform well, including his most recent second place effort behind Pakistan Star in the Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup. The trick here is the turn back in distance from 2400m to 1800m, which is not ideal and not easy for a real stayer. I see him more as a place chance while my first pick is the late-running Gold Mount. Both Cruz horses will carry the top weight of 133 pounds here, but the difference is that Gold Mount has shown his prowess in his two wins over the distance, including one at Sha Tin.
Romantic Touch, Horse Of Fortune, Classic Emperor, Packing Dragon and Prawn Baba will all show pace but none are clear leaders, so it should be only a modest tempo. Of the five, Romantic Touch and Horse Of Fortune are place chances.
In the Premier Cup at 1400 metres, there is no real pace in the race and Dundonnell may lead with California Whip in close contention. California Whip is a win and place chance to validate his solid win in the Hong Kong Macau Trophy. He faces much tougher opposition moving up to Group 3 level, but gets a nice break in the weights and is in top form.
Thewizardofoz has been knocking heads with our top sprinters and should improve here over the class and distance. This is his best trip and he is working the best I have seen him this season. He’s a place chance along with Winner’s Way and Dundonnell.
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