As Hong Kong racing sweeps through the third quarter of the 2021/22 season, the return of a band of Group 1 winners at Sha Tin on Sunday is another reminder that FWD Champions Day is rapidly approaching.
The entry for Sunday’s G2 Chairman’s Trophy (1600m) features Golden Sixty, Russian Emperor and Waikuku, while the Group 1-winning contenders nominated for the G2 Sprint Cup (1200m) include Wellington, Hot King Prawn, Stronger and Sky Field.
As usual, there is no shortage of emerging talent and accomplished older horses among the entry hoping to lay foundations for a Champions Day tilt, when a remarkable HK$65 million in prize money will be spread across the three G1s – the HK$20 million Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m), the HK$20 million FWD Champions Mile (1600m) and the HK$25 million FWD QEII Cup (2000m).
FWD Champions Day is synonymous with international competition and we again received very strong interest for 2022 FWD Champion’s Day from Japan, Australia and Ireland with even Mother Earth being considered as potential runner but, unfortunately, we could not under the prevailing COVID-19 conditions invite or accommodate overseas runners.
We have been fortunate to have strong support from overseas trainers at our flagship meetings for many years and Japanese trainers have been among the most regular visitors to Hong Kong, often emerging with Group spoils with outstanding horses such as Loves Only You and Glory Vase in recent seasons.
The Land Of The Rising Sun again shone at last Saturday’s Dubai World Cup meeting with five wins, including a dead-heat, from nine races. The Japanese have made an art form of successfully campaigning abroad and few are more effective at it than Yoshito Yahagi.
Mr Yahagi posted a treble at Meydan with Panthalassa, who dead-heated with Lord North in the G1 Dubai Turf, Stay Foolish, who won the G2 Dubai Gold Cup, and Bathrat Leon who took out the G2 Godolphin Mile.
International racing represents a quality offering for customers globally and, from a World Pool perspective, it was pleasing to note turnover for the Dubai World Cup last Saturday night was HK$334.7 million across eight races, representing an increase on the 2021 figure of HK$332.7 million.
Only two other World Pool or Simulcast meetings have totalled more – 2021 King’s Stand Stakes Day at Royal Ascot with a turnover of HK$340.4 million across seven races and 2021 South Africa Champion’s Day with HK$336 million across nine races.
On Saturday night, there were 50 individual wagering partners from Europe, Asia, the UK, South Africa, Australia and North America who commingled into World Pool bet types with the overall effect of increasing liquidity and delivering greater value for punters.
Domestically, while we received an initial indication earlier this week from the Mainland authorities that the cross-border horse movement might be able to resume in time for our two Group 2 races this coming Sunday, we have to accept that at present there still remain multiple issues, including some difficult technical ones, that would not be resolved in the near term.
We are fully engaging various levels of our contacts to resolve these issues, especially for FWD Champions Day and we would like to express our apologies to our owners who have their horses currently in Conghua.
Our focus returns to Sha Tin on Wednesday night where the fifth race of our rare all-dirt meeting is the Class 1 Silvermine Bay Handicap over 1200 metres for horses rated 110 to 85. Kurpany is at the top of the handicap and returns from a two-month freshening, which included five weeks at Conghua, after winning his last two starts. He will be ridden by five-pound claiming jockey Alfred Chan and has the versatility to run well making the pace or from just behind the leaders.
Kurpany has enough natural speed to make the pace here, which should be good to slow. He enjoyed a solid trial recently and is coming into the race in the best form of his career. I make him a win and place chance.
Duke Wai, who will be ridden by Matthew Chadwick, ran third to Kurpany at 10/1 when rallying in the last 200m with a last 400m sectional of 22.92s when they last met on the all-weather track on 30 January. While they had an equal handicap rating of 102 at that time, the rating difference has swung in Duke Wai’s favour by 10 pounds for the race tonight.
Czarson returns to the dirt track where he is a course and distance specialist. He gets in with a light weight with Matthew Poon and will make his run from the back. He is a horse that does not generally begin well from the barrier and this is a minor concern. Another strong contender is the four-year-old Majestic Star, who is working very well and has Karis Teetan on board. He is in excellent form and showed his liking for the dirt track when convincingly winning a Class 3 on 30 January.
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