Heading off to Hong Kong for the Group One International races has always been the highlight of my calendar and one for the few occasions I could get away from the laptop and head off to see some of the World’s best in action – though the dreaded covid soon put an end to all of that, and it is hard to believe it has been three years since I was last lucky enough to attend in person.
As always, our first trip out is to Happy Valley on the Wednesday evening for the International Jockeys Challenge which is lively, loud, colourful, and more fun than you can shake a stick at. I am no travel writer so I can struggle to put into words just how enthralling the evening is (part course, part atmosphere and possibly part floodlights), but is an experience to savour if you ever get the opportunity. Racing wise I am sorry to say it is not for me (think Shergar Cup only with horses, trainers and jockeys you don’t know) with four handicaps just to make life that little bit trickier, though as a Brit I did walk away head held high after Tom Marquand and Silvestre de Sousa (surely an honorary Brit by now) sharing the spoils with a winner each and a fourth to decide the title. Add an earlier winner for Ryan Moore and a later one for Hollie Doyle and all is rosy in the UK garden ahead of the more important races to come on Sunday afternoon.
Now this is the part of the article where I invariably make a fool of myself by picking my idea of the winners of the four Group One contests on Sunday – but in my defence you try comparing form from Europe to Japan to Hong Kong to Singapore to the rest of the World – and then second guess who has or has not travelled well, settled in – or eaten up.
What we do get is the opportunity to get up early in the morning to watch the horses work at the track which is something I so wish we had back home – though I have to refer to my more esteemed colleagues who know what to look for regarding the habits of the locally trained runners, which as a guest is beyond me. I can see who look fits and well, who has a shiny coat, who swallows up the ground with their loping stride – but the little intricacies are the domain of the experts, though thankfully the scribes here are a sociable bunch and I am not beyond picking others brains when needed.
On to the racing:
For those having a closer look at the card I am quite aware of the long list of handicaps that make up the rest of the day, but they are even further beyond my little brain, and I will settle for the “Big Four” as I do every season.
Longines Hong Kong Vase
Raced over a distance of 2400mtrs (or a mile and a half in old money), and with over £2 milion in prize money, foreign raiders have a decent record here with Aidan O’Brien looking for his fourth success and Japan’s Glory Vase trying to land it for the third time, while France are represented by Bubble Gift and Botanik, and Germany by Mendocino for a proper International conundrum. Sorry but I cannot have Broome or Stone Age personally despite Aidan’s amazing record, I would be surprised if either were really up to this level, while I am wary this ground could be a touch too quick for the other European raiders, though on pedigree they are entitled to handle it as well as any. Allowing your heart to rule your head is a mistake I regularly make (thank goodness I am not a tipster), and with Joao Moreira possibly the best jockey I have ever been privileged to see in action, how fitting would it be if he could steer Glory Vase home here? We know the now seven-year-old travels well, we know he handles the track, and we know he gets on well with his jockey (who was on board for both previous wins here), and on Joao’s last ever meeting here before a six month farewell tour thanks to injury, what a fitting result that would be, for the romantics like me at least.
Suggestion: Glory Vase
Longines Hong Kong Sprint
A sprint in Hong Kong is just as difficult to solve as one back home, with a missed start or any trouble in running potentially stopping a winning effort, though with another purse of over £2million, connections will all be hoping and praying for a clear passage. The home team will be looking for another success here having kept the prize in eight of the last nine renewals, but they face a strong challenge from Japan and Singapore, and may need to be at their very best to add to those statistics. Sky Field won this last year and warrants plenty of respect as does Wellington under Ryan Moore, but after the draw came out this morning, I will still be siding with Japanese raider Meikei Yell, a daughter of Mikki Isle out of a Harbinger mare, and to be ridden by James McDonald. I am hoping for an each way price and will be backing her accordingly, with her jockey brimming with confidence after he collects the Longines Jockey of the year Award on Friday night. Add the fact that the filly is only a four-year-old and has room to improve further, and that she broke the course record over this trip at Chukyo in September, plus her sex allowance from the colts and geldings, and she has to have some kind of chance despite being drawn widest of all.
Suggestion: Meikei Yell each way
Longines Hong Kong Mile
Nearer to £3 million in prize money this time around but can anyone find a way to beat the favourite? Golden Sixty is the poster boy of Hong Kong racing having won this last year and in 2020 and will look for his hat-trick but this may just be the toughest field he has faced yet. He has won 22 of his 25 career starts and over £11 million in prize money, and has the draw trainer Francis Lui wanted in the four stall. Champion jockey Zac Purton will be on board his biggest rival in California Spangle, who is drawn in two and will no doubt try to make all the running, but even Zac sems to think the jolly is unbeatable unless he runs in to trouble when looking for his run. Making money on a race with an odds-on favourite who needs to get the breaks is not my idea of fun if I’m honest, and I will be sitting back and watching rather than risking any of my hard earned.
Suggestion: Golden Sixty
Longines Hong Kong Cup
If anyone can see a more competitive race of the four in advance then do let me know, because this looks like it could be an absolute corker. Local hero Romantic Warrior, an Irish bred son of Acclamation, goes from strength to strength and returned with a comfortable success here in November and he should be a tough nut to crack, but this looks a wide-open contest. Aidan O’Brien’s Order Of Australia rarely runs a bad race and may well pick up some place money in this £3 million plus contest, while Jack D’Or holds the 2000mtrs record at Chukyo in Japan and is hard to simply overlook. All can and all should go well, but I have been really taken with Panthalassa in his morning work and with eccentric trainer Yoshito Yahagi also singing his praises, I am not the only one who fancies his chances. A confirmed front-runner he will need to hold back some of that early energy for the finish, but if he can repeat his neck second to Equinox in the Tenno Sho at Tokyo at the end of October, he could take all the stopping here.
Suggestion: Panthalassa
Comments