Those of you who follow Hong Kong racing news closely will know that three of our top milers – Fellowship, Beauty Flash and Sight Winner – set off for Japan early yesterday to prepare for the final leg of this year’s Asian Mile Challenge – the Group 1 Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo Racecourse on Sunday 6 June. Following Green Birdie’s recent success in Singapore, it would be the icing on the cake if one of these runners could bring more glory for Hong Kong on the Tokyo turf.
I learnt that the trainers concerned have proposed jockey engagements for their runners. Zac Purton is likely to be teaming up again with Fellowship, after ridden the seven-year-old to its maiden Group 1 success in the Stewards’ Cup earlier in the season. Tony Cruz’s may select either Felix Coetzee or Matthew Chadwick to ride Hong Kong Classic Mile winner Beauty Flash, while Craig Williams – the Australian jockey who’s now enjoying his short stint in Japan – may mount Sight Winner, the 2009 Champions Mile winner who will be contesting this top Japanese mile event for the second year in a row.
Our premiership-leading jockeys Brett Prebble and Douglas Whyte have garnered some decent results when they partnered our top runners to participate in other major overseas races in recent years. However, both of them appeared to be more focused on their bid for the premiership title this season as they were absent from the Singapore international meeting a fortnight ago. With Douglas to be sidelined next week and unavailable for the Japanese campaign, it’s also likely for Brett to stay in Hong Kong.
To me, this season's jockeys' battle has been the most exciting for several years. Having led the standings for almost the whole of the season, Brett is still holding a narrow advantage as he leads Douglas by 82 wins to 76, with just 14 race meetings to go. With the latter out of action next week, Brett has a chance to extend that margin, but Douglas is an opponent that you can never write off, and I'm sure he will not relinquish his nine-year winning streak without a fight. I think it's going to prove a very absorbing battle in the coming weeks.
Despite the strong line-up of experienced foreign and local jockeys riding here, our apprentice jockeys have also racked up a good number of wins this term. With our reigning Champion Apprentice Matthew Chadwick having already graduated from apprentice ranks this season, the battle to succeed him is getting just as heated. As of now, Keith Yeung holds the lead with 26 winners, but hot on his tail are Derek Leung with 23 wins and Ben So with 21. I hope all these young riders will continue to work diligently and improve their riding skills and composure in the future.
With such keen competition, you can expect tonight's eight races at Happy Valley to be very exciting once again. Personally, I will be watching the performance of Happy Tumbler in the Oi Tung Handicap. This four-year-old delivered a strong dash in his last appearance at Happy Valley last week. Although he was drawn wide once again, I think he still has a good chance to win this race. However, recent performers like Master Gunner, Supernova and Great Guy, will give some strong oppositions to Happy Tumbler in this mile event.
In the Hong Tung Handicap, which the pace expected to be good to slow, frontrunners like El Zonda, who will be running for the first time over 1200m this season, will likely be the runners to enjoy this advantage. However, Packing Power has shown substantial improvements in his last three runs. Partnered by Brett Prebble tonight, this British import is my favourite in this race. The late finishing and reliable Elegance Desire is also in nice form. I’m interested to see if he can get a close finish tonight.
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