To celebrate having such a fantastic sporting highlight in our season with 2 Group 1 races featuring KA YING RISING, ROMANTIC WARRIOR and VOYAGE BUBBLE as some of world’s best horses on parade at Sha Tin on Sunday (25 January), we wanted to make this a special event by have an opening performance with popular singer-songwriter Jay Fung at 11.30am in the Parade Ring to create the right atmosphere for this meeting.
The Centenary Sprint Cup, which is a Group 1 over 1200m with a prizemoney of HK$13 million, has been programmed as the first leg of the Hong Kong Speed Series – with the other two legs being the G1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) and the G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m) – which carries a bonus of HK$5 million for the winner of all three legs.
The Centenary Sprint Cup is carded as race 6 and is programmed to start at 3pm.
KA YING RISING, who is the reigning World’s Best Sprinter and the joint number two in the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, is on a mission to create history as he bids for a 17th straight victory – a feat which would see him equal to the legendary SILENT WITNESS’s record for the most consecutive wins of a horse trained in Hong Kong. Interestingly enough, SILENT WITNESS was himself at the time the World’s Best Sprinter.
We have had many world-class sprinters in Hong Kong, but I have never seen a better sprinter in Hong Kong and globally than KA YING RISING.
David Hayes has expertly used Conghua Racecourse, with its amazing facilities and relaxing surrounds on the Chinese Mainland, as part of the development and maintenance of this superstar sprinter and it is clearly a formula that works perfectly.
The speed in the Centenary Sprint will be good with KA YING RISING, with his perfect partner Zac Purton on board, likely to lead FAST NETWORK with James McDonald and BEAUTY WAVES, who will be ridden by Matthew Chadwick.
KA YING RISING is undefeated in 16 starts since February 2024 and last start easily won the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) on 14 December from RAGING BLIZZARD and FAST NETWORK. He has been to Conghua since and last week trialled impressively in preparation for his return and KA YING RISING is my win selection.
FAST NETWORK finished second to KA YING RISING in the G2 Jockey Club Sprint (1200m) in November and was third in the LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint. FAST NETWORK easily won a trial last week and, from gate two, FAST NETWORK is a place chance.
RAGING BLIZZARD, to be ridden by Brenton Avdulla, continues to improve with each run and came from well back on the turn in the LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint to finish second to KA YING RISING. He had an easy trial last week and will run well again.
HELIOS EXPRESS, to be ridden by Hugh Bowman, settled in the back half of the field behind KA YING RISING last start and made reasonable ground in the straight to finish fifth. He has had two easy trials since and, on his best form, is a place chance.
The G1 Stewards’ Cup is the first leg of the Triple Crown and is run over 1600m prize money of HK$13 million. The two other legs are the G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup over 2000m and the G1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup over a distance of 2400m. A special bonus of HK$10 million is rewarded to the winner of all three legs.
In Hong Kong’s racing history, only the legendary RIVER VERDON and, last season, VOYAGE BUBBLE have been able to win the Triple Crown. It was an amazing performance from VOYAGE BUBBLE and a tremendous training performance from Ricky Yiu and VOYAGE BUBBLE will attempt to repeat the Triple Crown sweep but he will be threatened by another of Hong Kong racing’s immortals, ROMANTIC WARRIOR, who himself is the number 7 in the world and the third-highest middle-distance horse with a global record prize money of HK$240,105,697
ROMANTIC WARRIOR will stay at least for this season in Hong Kong and not only to attempt to win the Stewards’ Cup, which he has not won in his outstanding career, but he will attempt to win the Triple Crown, too.
The Stewards’ Cup is run as Race 8 at 4.05pm and the pace of the race is expected to be good to slow with RED LION, ridden by Hugh Bowman likely to lead from gate one, from VOYAGE BUBBLE, who has Hong Kong Champion Jockey Zac Purton on board, with MY WISH and Alexis Badel followed by ROMANTIC WARRIOR with last season’s LONGINES World’s Best Jockey James McDonald.
ROMANTIC WARRIOR has run over 1600m only three times in his stellar career. He won the 2022 Hong Kong Classic Mile, finished second to GOLDEN SIXTY in this race in 2023 and beat Japan’s best milers in the 2024 Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo. ROMANTC WARRIOR should be ready to strike coming to the home turn and, with his brilliant turn of foot, is my win and place selection.
VOYAGE BUBBLE is searching for his third consecutive victory in this race, last year beating GALAXY PATCH and RED LION in dominant fashion. Last start, VOYAGE BUBBLE fought back to beat SOUL RUSH in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile on 14 December. VOYAGE BUBBLE had an easy trial recently and he is the horse ROMANTIC WARRIOR and the rest of the field have to beat.
MY WISH finished sixth behind Voyage Bubble in the LONGINES Hong Kong Mile, staying on fairly to be safely held in the finish. MY WISH has drawn well in gate two and should get the run of the race and is a place chance.
RED LION, to be ridden by Hugh Bowman, upset VOYAGE BUBBLE in the G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) in April and ran with great credit last start, finishing third to VOYAGE BUBBLE and SOUL RUSH in the LONGINES Hong Kong Mile. RED LION is a place chance along with GALAXY PATCH (Maxime Guyon).
LUCKY SWEYNESSE, to be partnered by Derek Leung, BEAUTY JOY, who will be ridden by Brenton Avdulla, STRAIGHT ARRON, to be ridden by Dylan Browne McMonagle, and SUNLIGHT POWER, for Vincent Ho, are all capable of finishing in the top four placings.
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