Hayes, Schofield and the HKJC look to the emerging crop for impetus
As the Hong Kong season moves into the final seven of its 88 fixtures, David Hayes and Chad Schofield are already looking ahead to next term and the anticipated fulfilment of Fantastic Treasure’s (Written Tycoon) exciting promise.
The Hayes-trained three-year-old is one of a handful of bright young prospects carrying Hong Kong’s hopes at a time when the elite ranks have thinned to balding. Past heroes have waned and retired, leaving holes that need filling, and Fantastic Treasure stands alongside the John Size-trained Courier Wonder (Sacred Falls) at the head of the emerging cohort.
Hayes has had a middling first season back in Hong Kong, while Schofield, against the predictions of many an observer, has not been able to kick on and join the top echelon of riders. The handler currently has 30 wins at an eight per cent win strike rate: the jockey has posted only 24 wins at a six per cent rate. But both believe Fantastic Treasure has what it takes to give them some needed propulsion.
“I hope he can,” Schofield said. “I’ve actually had a pretty poor season in terms of where I’d want to be. I haven’t ridden nearly as many winners as I’d hoped and he’s obviously given me five of those as well. A few things didn’t go my way: I had a few injuries and suspensions and whatnot, but I’ve got some nice horses for next season and I’ve just got to finish this season off strongly and head into next season with a bit of form.
“Fantastic Treasure has done a great job for me and next season I really hope he can put his name up and be recognised and win the top races. I think he can and hopefully he can get me going a bit more.”
Fantastic Treasure has won five races from as many starts, having relocated to Sha Tin with Hayes as an unraced prospect. The gelding was passed in at AU$90,000 at the 2019 Gold Coast National Yearling Sale but was sold to Baystone Farm for AU$45,000 at the same year’s Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, and was with Troy Corstens before Hayes stepped in with owners Ken Leung and Leung Kwun.
“I’ve had an unbalanced string and next year it’ll be very balanced, I’ve had a year to get it right,” said Hayes of his slow-burning campaign. “Having 64 of the 70 being first-season horses, it just took them six to eight months to settle in and get going.
“Fantastic Treasure is a good-looking, big horse and he’s really taken to the environment well. He’s got a little bit of stoutness on the dam’s side so I’m hoping he’ll be able to run on. That gives him a bit of help, the best part of his races has been the last furlong so I’m hopeful that he will stick on with his scope. He’s clean-winded and he’s relaxed.”
Hayes and Schofield see the three-year-old as one for the Four-Year-Old Classics Series, which will kick off next January with the Hong Kong Mile (Listed, 1600m), then continue through the Hong Kong Cup (Listed, 1800m) and round out with the Hong Kong Derby (Listed, 2000m) in mid-March.
“If he can furnish now with his break and come back a stronger horse, he’s going to be very hard to beat in the four-year-old series,” Schofield said. “He’s a beautiful, big, strong horse but you’d think with natural improvement from three to four, off only one racing preparation too, you’d think he’d be able to improve.”
Fantastic Treasure’s unblemished record has lifted him from an import rating of 54 to 94. His status among the current young guns is eclipsed only by the breath-taking Courier Wonder, whose five unanswered victories have seen him rise from the PPG base of 54 to a rating of 107.
Fantastic Treasure’s rating compares favourably with 2018 Hong Kong Classic Mile winner Nothingilikemore (Husson), who ended his three-year-old term rated 98. Courier Wonder is approaching Rapper Dragon (Street Boss) territory: John Moore’s ill-fated star, winner of all three Classic Series legs, was rated 114 when wrapping his three-year-old season with a Group-race win and Courier Wonder rounded out his term with success in the Sha Tin Vase Handicap (Gr 3, 1200m).
“You never know what’s going to come in, of course, but I’d say Courier Wonder with the speed and this fella probably for the middle-distance: they’re the classy two. There are a lot of good young horses out there but they’ve both done it: they’re undefeated and they’ve gone from Class 4 to Class 1, which is not easy to do,” noted Hayes.
Joao Moreira – who has also ridden the unbeaten PPG Blaze Warrior (Sebring) – has made no secret of his admiration for Courier Wonder, having partnered the brown gelding in each of his five wins, all at 1200 metres. John Foote Bloodstock purchased the youngster from the Waikato Stud draft at the 2019 Karaka National Yearling Sale for NZ$150,000.
Both Courier Wonder and Fantastic Treasure are in the running for Champion Griffin honours at the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s (HKJC) end-of-season Champion Awards, an event which carries a hefty weight of prestige among owners. The nominations for that event were released last Friday, the day before last year’s Horse of the Year Exultant (Teofilo) was given a deserving send-off at his retirement ceremony during racing at Sha Tin.
Unusually, for one so untried, Courier Wonder was also listed as a candidate for Champion Sprinter honours, as one of only seven horses represented in the five senior categories, which also include horse of the year, champion miler, champion middle-distance horse and champion stayer. His inclusion speaks as much to the well-documented current lack of depth as it does to his burgeoning ability.
The small number of overall nominations – which sees Golden Sixty (Medaglia D’Oro) uncontested in the champion miler bracket and up against only Sky Darci (Darci Brahma) for the middle-distance honour – follows a trend over the past three seasons, with eight horses nominated last year and seven in 2019. Those numbers contrast with 12 horses nominated in 2018, 13 in 2017, 14 in 2016 and 13 at the end of the 2014-15 season, suggesting there is credence to the popular view that Hong Kong racing is light on numbers in the highest echelon and has been for some time.
At the end of the 2014-15 season, a high-water mark in Hong Kong racing, the exceptional Able Friend (Shamardal) was one of five horses to achieve a rating of 120 or higher: the champion reached his zenith at 127, Design On Rome (Holy Roman Emperor) was rated 123, as was Military Attack (Oratorio), while Gold-Fun (La Vie Dei Colori) rated at 122 and Blazing Speed (Dylan Thomas) 121.
Providing strong support, a further 19 horses were rated 115 or higher, including Group 1 winners Dan Excel (Shamardal), Aerovelocity (Pins), Ambitious Dragon (Pins), Lucky Nine (Dubawi), Peniaphobia (Dandy Man), Glorious Days (Hussonet), Rich Tapestry (Holy Roman Emperor) and Amber Sky (Exceed And Excel).
At the conclusion of the 2019-20 season, the number of horses rated 115 or higher was down to 20, yet the number rated 120 or higher was in fact the same as in the 2014-15 season. Beauty Generation (Road To Rock) clung to his high mark 127, Beat The Clock (Hinchinbrook) was still there on 121, while Aethero (Sebring), Exultant and Hot King Prawn (Denman) all reached the 120 mark.
What is stark, though, is that 12 of those 20 high-flyers from the 2019-20 campaign have since retired, including all of the 120+ horses bar Hot King Prawn who has not raced since mid-March.
The current World’s Best Racehorse Rankings show that Golden Sixty is the only active Hong Kong-trained horse to have achieved a 120 rating since January. And, for the whole of the 2020-21 season, the number was just three, thanks to Hot King Prawn and Exultant having managed to dig deep enough when it mattered to somehow hold on to their peak ratings of 120.
But horseracing is cyclical and HKJC is pinning its hopes on the rising crop, along with the high-priced PPs that will arrive in the coming months.
“The whole landscape of the best horses is changing at the moment but that always happens and I think we’re well-placed to have some young superstars trending in the right direction to get there. Some of the staying ranks have been decimated and will take a while to fill but somehow they end up doing it,” Hayes observed.
Silent Witness (El Moxie) is the ultimate benchmark. Hong Kong racing’s greatest icon ascended from an initial mark of 52 to be rated 121 at the end of his five-race debut season. Golden Sixty kicked on from his first season rating of 75 to sweep the 2020 Classic Series and has emerged as an outright champion.
“It’s always hard to compare up and coming horses in different eras but to win five out of five in Hong Kong and race up through the grades, like Fantastic Treasure and Courier Wonder have, it’s not done too often and when it has happened they’ve often turned into top horses,” Schofield added.
Hong Kong doesn’t need Courier Wonder and Fantastic Treasure to be all-time greats – that would be a rare bonus – but it does need a good handful of this rising crop to begin the cycle of restoring depth to its Group 1 strata.