Hong Kong Jockey Club Cup Guangzhou Final. More than 30 international and Mainland-based riders competed and first and foremost, I offer my sincerest congratulations to all the winners, but most especially to Kenneth Cheng, a member of the Club’s Equestrian Team, and winner of the Elite Class competition. Teammate Raena Leung was fourth in the LONGINES Grand Prix, the biggest competition of the day.
This was the second year the event was hosted at The Hong Kong Jockey Club International Equestrian Arena, part of the Guangdong Huangcun Sports Training Centre, and the reviews of the facility that we received from some of the world’s finest equestrian participants were so positive. Besides the feedback from participants that this arena was the best in Mainland China, many of the international riders compared it with the top venues around the world.
Sunday’s Jockey Club Races at Sha Tin were quite exciting, and provided us with a touch of the old, the new and a few surprises in-between. It was great to see some of our old friends return to the races, including Able Friend and Military Attack, each of whom ran solid races first-up. We also had some surprising runners such as Secret Weapon, Flame Hero and Romantic Touch who came up with the best performances of their Hong Kong careers on Sunday, and enhancing their chances of being included in the line-up of the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races next month.
In the meantime two of our talented and popular young horses, Mr Stunning and Pakistan Star, both suffered defeats in their Class 2 races. Having said that, both still delivered promising late runs and had no disgrace in their loss in races.
We are soon to announce the list of selected runners of the four international G1 races on 11 December later this afternoon. There are many star horses in our initial fields and I must say it is an incredibly deep lineup of overseas contenders. The contingent from Japan is particularly formidable and I’m certain you will greatly enjoy the action on the track, and the work leading up to the big day, on 11 December. Apart from the likes of LONGINES Hong Kong Cup defending champion A Shin Hikari and his fellow compatriot, another HKIR winner last year Maurice, there are more top names included in our fields. I simple can’t wait for the meeting to come and you can find out more on those selected runners in our announcement later today.
Before that we shall enjoy another terrific night meeting at Happy Valley this evening, with eight races on the card. The seventh race is the Hung Hom Handicap (2nd section), a Class 3 event over 1650 metres of the C+3 course. The pace in this race is likely to be good. Choice Treasure has led a slowly-run race last season when ridden by Kei Chiong and they are likely to go forward to be the leaders here with a solid draw. Happy Spirit will likely apply pressure from the outside. Sunny Win was an easy winner last out from a tracking position but will likely be caught wide. Super Fluke has led before but was ridden a bit quieter last time when winning. Big Bang Bong and The Sylph should both get great trips.
For me, The Sylph is my main win and place chance given the great draw and the likelihood that he will get an ideal trip under new rider Joao Moreira. He has rallied well in his last two starts when closing wide and should be better positioned tonight to land another win. Super Fluke has been very consistent despite just earning his first win last time out. He should get a decent trip from barrier six and is a trustworthy placing chance. Sunny Win is also a place chance off a much improved effort after adding a tongue tie last time out, but will once again have to deal with a high draw. Sky King won in his only Happy Valley start and took a while to get going last season. He is well-drawn in gate three and could improve to be a place chance.
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