New Year’s Day is always an auspicious occasion on the Hong Kong racing calendar and last Sunday was no exception with an outstanding performance from Vincent Ho with a four-timer and Lucky Sweynesse’s excellent G3 Chinese Club Cup Challenge Handicap victory.
Vincent has been in fantastic form this season with 34 wins from 261 rides and Sunday’s quartet made it nine wins across the past four meetings. Versatility was the hallmark of Vincent’s latest cameo with victories on horses of varying ages, with three-year-old Chilli Baba and seven-year-old Jiangxi Stamina, and success on the round course with Super Sunny Sing and also over the straight course with Metro Warrior.
As a three-time winner of the Tony Cruz award as Hong Kong’s best home-grown jockey, Vincent has made no secret of his desire to improve at every opportunity, whether through diet, fitness or gaining experience in another jurisdiction, and his decision to spend part of the off-season in Japan appears to have been an inspired decision with his growth as a rider.
While Zac Purton continues to hold sway after another double on Sunday to have 72 wins after 32 meetings at a stunning winning strike rate of 27.16%, it was also encouraging to watch Antoine Hamelin feature with a brace of his own at the weekend. Similarly, it was good to see Chris So and Jimmy Ting post doubles.
In terms of horse performance, Lucky Sweynesse was wonderful in winning the afternoon’s feature for Manfred Man, clocking the fastest final 400m sectional of the day by a winning horse (21.98s), while carrying 135lb under Zac.
Manfred rates Lucky Sweynesse the best horse he has handled and the four-year-old was clearly unlucky when he struggled for clear running when sixth in the LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) last month, but his rise to 125 in the handicap ratings – to be behind only Golden Sixty (130), Romantic Warrior (130), California Spangle (129) and Wellington (128) – accurately illustrates his quality.
Sunday’s victory has set the scene for a possible tilt for Lucky Sweynesse at the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup (1200m) at Sha Tin on 5 February. Success there would deliver a much-deserved Group 1 triumph for Manfred and the horse.
Sunday’s crowd of 23,336 – the largest New Year’s Day gathering at Sha Tin since 2019 – generated a great atmosphere and we look forward to seeing more of our customers returning over the next few weeks leading up to the Chinese New Year meeting on Tuesday, 24 January.
The season continues at Happy Valley on Wednesday night, when the Hip Wo Handicap for Class 3 horses over 1200m is carded as Race 9 at 10:50pm with prizemoney of HK$1,725,000.
The pace should be good with Happy Sharing the established leader in the race likely to find the front from gate seven under Angus Chung. Summit Cheers is capable of leading and should go forward from his outside draw along with Lord Thunder who has drawn the widest. Golden Link went back from a wide gate last start but has drawn the rails for Derek Leung and will take up a position closer to the lead.
The solid pace will set the race up for horses coming from the second half of the field and there are a number of leading chances who are noted back markers.
Gold Gold Baby has won three of his four starts this season and could hardly have been more impressive when coming from the back and overcoming an interrupted passage in the straight to beat Sergeant Pepper on 19 October. At his latest start, he produced an electrifying finishing burst to storm down the outside of the track to win running away on 7 December. Gold Gold Baby takes another rise in class tonight and may need some luck from an inside gate but with horse and rider in such great form I make him a win and place chance for Vincent Ho.
Heroic Master was an easy winner over 1000m here on 9 November for Zac Purton and then went back from a wide gate and ran home the widest in the straight when third to California Deeply on 30 November. Heroic Master is again the choice of Zac – who celebrated his 40th birthday on Tuesday – and stepping up to 1200m with the good draw in gate three should be to his advantage. I also make him a win and place chance.
Beauty Charge sat three-wide before finding the front at the 300m mark and fighting on strongly to beat all but Capital Legend at Sha Tin on 18 December. Beauty Charge races at Happy Valley for the first time tonight but trialled well at the track on 26 November. Luke Ferraris can have him stalking the speed from gate five and I make him a place chance.
There are a number of other runners with place claims on their latest form in a race that provides an exciting finale to a great night of racing at Happy Valley. Perhaps the best of them is Our Lucky Glory, a winner at the course and distance last season who is building back to his best form. He sat midfield and ran home strongly to finish second to Beauty Tycoon here on 14 December. Our Lucky Glory, who was second in a Group 1 in Brazil over 1500m as a two-year-old, hit the line hard in that race and is a place chance for Harry Bentley.
In this Class 3, we have horses originating from Great Britain and Ireland from the Northern Hemisphere competing against horses from Australia, Brazil and New Zealand from the Southern Hemisphere combined with trainers and jockeys from Hong Kong, South Africa, Mauritius, Australia and Great Britain shows the global character of Hong Kong racing.
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