I had an enjoyable day at the Japan Cup last Sunday, and it was a race with great importance as it decided the title for the 2017 LONGINES World’s Best Jockey in 2017.
Coming into the race, Hugh Bowman enjoyed a six-point advantage from Ryan Moore in the standings. The two world-class jockeys faced off at Fuchu as they each partnered Cheval Grand and Idaho in this 2400m contest. At last it was Bowman who prevailed, steering the former horse to a sensational victory, sealing his first World’s Best Jockey title in the process. It was Bowman’s first G1 success in Japan, also his 10th win in the World’s Top 100 G1 races over the past 12 months. Besides his tremendous success aboard the top-rated turf horse in the world, Winx, three of Hugh’s wins came in Hong Kong, scoring aboard Werther in the Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup and Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup, as well as guiding Lucky Bubbles to win the Chairman’s Sprint Prize.
Hugh will receive his World’s Best Jockey award at our LONGINES HKIR Gala Party on Friday, 8 December. He will also try to defend his crown in the LONGINES International Jockeys Championship at Happy Valley next Wednesday. Our fans will surely be interested to see if he can carry his terrific form to our international events next week.
We will stage an LONGINES IJC prelude party at Happy Valley tonight. Our racegoers can join the voting for “Your Favourite International Jockey” and participate in the Best Photo Contest for a chance to win a 55” Samsung TV or Hong Kong Airlines free air tickets to Korea.
For the eight races on tonight’s card my suggestions are for race number 8 which is the Hung Hom Handicap being a Class 3 over 1800m. There is no clear leader in this field and the pace is likely to be slow. Ten Flames could go to the front with Land Grant, who raced forward in a trial recently. Acclaimed Light could also be prominent with Sharp Sailor and King Of Mongolia to be near the lead. Top Act and Easy Hedge should be in midpack with Victory Boys and Gold Land behind. Goodheart Success and Let Us Win should be out the back. The slow pace tends to favour horses who are more on the speed and horses like Victory Boys and especially Goodheart Success will have to overcome this handicap.
King Of Mongolia is in good form and finished strongly in his last race. With his good position in midfield, he is my first choice in a very open and competitive field. Sharp Sailor was found lame after his last race in which he could not repeat his good form when beating King Of Mongolia over course and distance, but should be competitive for a win or place again.
Victory Boys was last in his last race but did not find room to charge forward and was not properly tested. He has to come from the back of the field but I see him still as a place chance and the same applies for Goodheart Success and Gold Land who have to come from the back of the field too.
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