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70 for Heart’s Cry
Late Shadai Stallion Station sire Heart’s Cry (Sunday Silence) was provided with his 70th individual stakes winner when Shake Your Heart (5 h ex Rumba Loca by Sri Pekan) landed Saturday’s Chunichi Shimbun Hai (Gr 3, 2000m) at Chukyo. Ridden by Yoshihiro Furukawa for Toru Miya, the five-year-old entire defeated Red Valiente (Deep Impact) by a length with a further nose back to June Take (Kizuna) in third. Out of the Grade 2-winning mare Rumba Loca (Sri Pekan), Shake Your Heart is a brother to three winners and a half-brother to a further eight winners. Heart’s Cry died in 2023.
HK: Barberot confident Beauvatier can strike in Hong Kong Mile
Yann Barberot is full of confidence Beauvatier (Lope De Vega) can topple the leading lights in Sunday’s Hong Kong Mile (Gr 1, 1600m). The four-year-old heads into the Sha Tin contest as something of a dark horse against proven Group 1 performers, but his trainer is confident he can post a career-best performance. He did exactly that on his last start in the Challenge Stakes (Gr 2, 7f) at Newmarket in October, coming home a dominant winner in a strong field, and Barberot believes the step back up to a mile for the first time in over a year will trigger a similar effort. “He needs pace in a race, which means we’re forced to run him over shorter trips in Europe and especially France,” the trainer said after assessing his horse at trackwork on Thursday. “The other day at Newmarket over 1400 metres on a stiff track, he showed that he could be an interesting horse at 1600 metres, especially around a quick track like Sha Tin. This was always among my targets for the end of the season. His win last time showed that we’ve got to the end of the year with a horse in mighty form, and we’ve minded him throughout the year, so he hasn’t had a lot of really tough battles, and that’s why I’m so excited about running him here. He’s not a Group 1 winner, but he’s shown he’s up to that level, and he arrives here in great form. Sunday will be interesting, for all that we’re among the outsiders.”