The final week of the build-up to LONGINES HKIR is vital for all concerned and it is fascinating to watch how the home team and the international challengers complete their preparations.
Sha Tin’s Quarantine barn is gradually filling up with star names from around the world and there was also some important barrier trial action on Friday morning, with many of Hong Kong’s finest horses on show.
It was certainly an important morning for Time Warp and Pakistan Star, who had to pass the trial to earn their places in the Cup and the Vase next Sunday, and everything seemed to go to plan.
William Buick has been booked to ride Pakistan Star for the first time since they combined so brilliantly to win the QEII Cup last April and that is far from the only intriguing jockey booking.
Last season’s Chairman’s Sprint Prize winner Ivictory looked more like his old self in winning a strong trial on Friday.
It seems John Size has engaged Christophe Lemaire and Ryan Moore to partner Ivictory and Beat The Clock respectively in the LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint, while the fact that Ryan has got off Aidan O’Brien’s Rostropovich to ride Mirage Dancer for his old boss Sir Michael Stoute in the LONGINES Hong Kong Vase is very interesting.
Of course, Ryan and Christophe will both be returning as past champions for the LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship on what will be a rare nine-race card at Happy Valley next Wednesday night.
With Hugh Bowman, Yutaka Take and Javier Castellano also flying in the standard will be incredibly high. In fact, the 12 riders who will compete for this year’s IJC have ridden well over 20,000 career winners between them.
In addition, the IJC stars have also ridden a combined total of well over 500 global G1 winners. For me, it is very safe to say that whichever rider comes out on top next week can say he has beaten some true champions to do so.
British champion Silvestre de Sousa is also part of the IJC and he has some strong chances at Sha Tin this Sunday, including in the Peninsula Golden Jubilee Challenge Cup (R6), a Class 3 over 1000m in which Refined Treasure, My Beginner’s Luck, Play To Win, Best Sense and Speedy King should help provide a good pace.
Silvestre’s mount Refined Treasure is a short track Sha Tin specialist and his lone defeat in four races to date was on debut when he suffered through an eventful trip and lost all chance. Since then, he has been perfect. He has not in seven months due to knee surgery in May and has not had the benefit of an ideal prep, but is still a win and place chance on class alone. He should be handy in the run and looks to have an edge in this grade.
Play To Win was very consistent in New Zealand and has worked well in advance of his Hong Kong debut. Similarly, Best Sense is a newcomer that commands attention as he trialled much better when adding blinkers two weeks ago. Both will be forwardly placed and are place chances, along with outsider My Beginner’s Luck who is a place chance in my view being course and distance winner in his penultimate start and after stable change from Michael Freedman to David Ferraris, whose horses have been running well.
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