The steady arrival over the past four days of outstanding international horses is confirmation that LONGINES HKIR is upon us once more and it was a thrill to see the first wave of Japanese contenders, led by last season’s FWD QEII Cup winner Loves Only You, settling in at Sha Tin mid-week.
The bulk of the overseas brigade from Ireland, France, England and several more from Japan will go through the same arrival process over next few days before making final preparations for the four lucrative Group 1 contests which will complete another challenging year for the Club and also horseracing in general.
Before we get to Sunday week, the LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship will take centre stage at Happy Valley on Wednesday night and, based on current form, the home side can be confident of a strong showing.
Though pitted against Ryan Moore, James McDonald, Tom Marquand, Hollie Doyle, Yuga Kawada, Mickael Barzalona, Damian Lane and Lyle Hewitson, Zac Purton, Joao Moreira, Alexis Badel and Vincent Ho will doubtlessly trade on local knowledge.
Zac and Joao are both riding in supreme form. While Joao has ridden a treble at the past two meetings to have 36 winners for the season, Zac holds sway at the top of the Hong Kong jockeys’ championship with 44 victories after doubles at the past two fixtures.
Given his current strike rate, Zac is poised to soon overtake Douglas Whyte’s all-time Hong Kong prizemoney record of HK$1,587,210,086.67. Douglas set the mark after having 12,269 rides in Hong Kong for an unmatched 1813 wins with an overall strike rate of 14.8 percent.
With 1339 Hong Kong wins so far from 8167 rides at a strike rate of 16.4 percent, Zac has accumulated HK$1,585,999,466 to be only HK$1,210,620.67 behind Douglas.
Sitting in third place with 1138 Hong Kong wins to date from 5286 rides at a strike rate of 21.5 percent, Joao has amassed HK$1,422,880,833 to trail Douglas by HK$164,329,253.67.
The Class 2 Carbine Club Of Hong Kong 30th Anniversary Handicap is the seventh race of a Sunday race meeting that features six races on the All-Weather track and it shapes up as a very competitive race, this one over 1200 metres. This is a tradition as the Club limits the number of races on turf to a minimum one week before HKIR.
Sight Success will flash his good speed from an inside draw with Vagner Borges to make the running and will set a good pace. Ka Ying Master will be in close pursuit with Derek Leung and, at the weights, I make Ka Ying Master a place chance.
Californiadeepshot turns back in trip from 1400 metres and also changes surface from turf to dirt. Though unable to finish in the top three in two previous starts on dirt, he has always trialled well on the dirt track and I expect a much-improved effort here. He will get a box seat run under Luke Ferraris and is a place chance.
Silver Fig is a last-start winner at the class, track and distance, and reunites with Matthew Poon from the inside draw. He will go back in the run and will be closing the race off strongly as a win and place chance. He is a five-time winner on the surface, which is actually only one less than fellow track and distance specialist Will Power. The latter has won his first start of the season in each of the last two years and will try to do it again with jockey Blake Shinn. He will also do his running from the back and is a place chance.
Shortly after the last race on Sunday marks the arrival of the Irish horses, the final group to arrive for the upcoming HKIR. Mac Swiney, Bolshoi Ballet, Mother Earth and Mogul are scheduled to arrive Sunday at 8pm to complete the line-up of 19 international runners.
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