HKIR still a sight to behold
In a year in which Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on the international racing calendar, the 2020 Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) have held up remarkably well with a number of fascinating clashes between the locally-trained horses and the international raiders.
Sure, the thousands of visitors who fly in from all around the world each year will be watching from home instead of cheering trackside, but the Hong Kong Jockey Club has still served up a meeting of international importance which has gained attention from all corners of the globe.
Below is a look at today’s four international races in chronological order.
Columbus County the potential Vase spoiler
The Hong Kong Vase (Gr 1, 2400m) normally features a large field of visitors with just a sprinkling of locals, no surprise given the local program does little to accommodate mile and a half horses.
This year, just two visitors – Grand Prix de Paris (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Mogul (Galileo) and Bahrain International Trophy (2000m) victor Royal Julius (Royal Applause) – have made the trip to Sha Tin, taking on five locals.
It makes it more akin to the season-ending Champions and Chater Cup (Gr 1, 2400m), run each May, rather than a typical Hong Kong Vase.
That said, there is a Vase winner among the locals in Exultant (Teofilo) while Group 3 winners Chefano (Silvano) and Ho Ho Khan (Makfi), as well as Hong Kong Derby (Listed, 2000m) runner-up Playa Del Puente (Elzaam), ensure that it is not as weak a Vase as it could have been.
However, it might be worth having a long look at the only horse without a black-type win next to his name in the Caspar Fownes-trained Columbus County (Redwood), a graduate of the 2017 Karaka Premier Yearling Sale.
His sire Redwood (High Chaparral) finished second to Mastery (Sulamani) in this race a decade ago while his dam Spirit Of Sandford (Kilimanjaro) was a winner at 2000 metres.
She herself is a sister to Bakup, a Group-performed stayer, while they are both out of a daughter of Daria’s Fun (Go Fun), who won the Wellington Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) in track-record time and held the two-mile world record for almost two decades until it was bettered by Japanese champion Deep Impact (Sunday Silence).
Clearly, it is a pedigree laden with stamina and there is every reason to think that the mile and a half is exactly what he is after.
Columbus County enters off a third-place finish in the Jockey Club Cup (Gr 2, 2000m) behind Furore (Pierro), a race in which Exultant ran second. The margin between second and third was a length and a half with Exultant getting a five-pound turnaround at the weights.
While the five-year-old has been ridden quietly this season, expect Joao Moreira to try and use the inside gate to position a little closer in what shapes as a tactical affair.
Prawn to sizzle in Sprint
Twenty years after one of the greatest HKIR battles of all time, between – in the words of David Raphael – the “mare of the world” Sunline (Desert Sun) against the “horse of Hong Kong” Fairy King Prawn (Danehill), the pink colours of owner Philip Lau can atone for that defeat by taking out today’s Hong Kong Sprint (Gr 1, 1200m) with Hot King Prawn (Denman).
What is often forgotten about Fairy King Prawn is that he did actually record an HKIR triumph, taking out the first Hong Kong Sprint when it was a Listed race over 1000 metres in 1999.
However, this would represent a new milestone for Lau, winning a Group 1 international race with his gutsy grey.
Just as Fairy King Prawn faced a mammoth obstacle in the form of the champion New Zealand mare, Hot King Prawn’s task is made far tougher by the appearance of Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt), the winner of the world’s richest race on turf, The Everest (1200m), at Randwick in October.
Classique Legend, now with Fownes having been trained by Les Bridge in Australia, has been in the stables since March and has had a number of finals in that period, so it must be some query as to whether he can peak once more.
The question has often been asked about why he didn’t stay with Bridge and travel to Hong Kong as a visitor before entering the Hong Kong horse population. Given quarantine restrictions at both ends, that would have proven impossible – he would have had to return to Australia before undergoing the same process he has undertaken over the last six weeks once more.
Fownes has produced a great training performance just to get Classique Legend to the gates, but it will be a feat for the ages should he take out his second Sprint, having first won the race with Lucky Nine (Dubawi) in 2011.
His trial last week was far from flashy, but it also achieved the purpose of having him cleared to take his place in the Sprint. Reports are that he has turned a corner the last few days and, if so, he will be very hard to beat.
The John Size-prepared Hot King Prawn, a 2016 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale graduate, has long been the testing material among the Hong Kong sprinters in what is a very even and perhaps underwhelming division currently.
He was beaten only a neck behind stablemate Beat The Clock (Hinchinbrook) last year and was rarely far away in the biggest sprints in town. On the balance of probabilities, he is likely to have the wood on the locals – if you count Classique Legend as an Australian for this purpose – so now it comes down to how he can handle the foreign raiders.
The Japanese sprinters have drawn awkwardly and neither looks capable of producing a Lord Kanaloa-esque performance of sitting three wide and waltzing clear by five lengths.
The disappointment is not being able to see Singapore speedster Inferno (Holy Roman Emperor), rated by some as the best from the Lion City since Rocket Man (Viscount), take his place in the line-up.
Size seeks to emulate ‘Glorious’ Mile heroics
In 2013, Size – who had already achieved so much in Hong Kong – finally added a first HKIR when Glorious Days (Hussonet) took out the Hong Kong Mile (Gr 1, 1600m). He has since added two wins in the Sprint.
What made that Mile triumph so remarkable though was that Glorious Days – who had finished second to Ambitious Dragon (Pins) in the 2012 Hong Kong Mile – was first-up, having not raced since finishing down the field in the Yasuda Kinen (Gr 1, 1600m) in Tokyo in June.
Today, Size will attempt a similar feat with last year’s Hong Kong Mile runner-up Waikuku (Harbour Watch), who has not raced since finishing third to Southern Legend (Not A Single Doubt) and Beauty Generation (Road To Rock) in the Champions Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) in late April.
Both horses will reoppose today, with Beauty Generation aiming to join Good Ba Ba (Lear Fan) as a three-time Hong Kong Mile winner. However, his two strongest opponents appear to be Japanese visitor Admire Mars (Daiwa Major), looking to defend his title, and local star Golden Sixty (Medaglia d’Oro), who on his last start became just the fourth horse to win ten straight in Hong Kong.
The Francis Lui-trained Golden Sixty, sold as a yearling at the 2017 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale before being reoffered at that year’s NZB Ready To Run Sale, has continued to step up to every challenge that has been asked of him. He swept the Four-Year-Old Classic Series, joining Rapper Dragon (Street Boss) as the only horses to achieve that feat, while he has dominated against his open-age rivals this season.
He is likely to be an odds-on favourite today, but he faces his toughest test in the form of Admire Mars and Waikuku. Also lining up is shock Breeders’ Cup Mile (Gr 1, 1m) hero Order Of Australia (Australia), who is looking to prove that his Keeneland triumph was no fluke.
Perhaps it is worth taking a chance on Size’s training prowess, which has already earned him a berth in the Australian Racing Hall Of Fame, and siding with Waikuku to return a winner.
Premium to upset Magical party
Victory in today’s Hong Kong Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) would give the Aidan O’Brien-trained Magical (Galileo) a special place in Ballydoyle history.
If she were to win Hong Kong’s richest race at her final start, she would become the first Flat horse for O’Brien to win eight Group or Grade 1 races. She currently sits alongside Highland Reel (Galileo), Minding (Galileo), Rock Of Gibraltar (Danehill) and Yeats (Sadler’s Wells) on seven. Only the legendary Istabraq (Sadler’s Wells), a 14-time Grade 1 winner over hurdles, has more.
There’s no doubt she enters with the best figures, the strongest ratings. Her best would see her a clear winner here. However, it is far from straightforward and she shapes as beatable for a number of reasons.
First, a positive for her. As O’Brien himself noted earlier this week, she is best when she is able to track up behind a solid tempo, as seen when she defeated Ghaiyyath (Dubawi) to win the Irish Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 1m 2f) in September.
She should get that here with Time Warp (Archipenko) a reliable leader. His best chance is to get rolling on the speed, so it is unlikely that he will go too slow.
However, while this will suit Magical, it will also suit her strongest competitors: the in-form local Furore (Pierro) and Japanese trio Danon Premium (Deep Impact), Win Bright (Stay Gold) and Normcore (Harbinger).
French raider Skalleti (Kendargent) has also attracted support after winning the Prix Dollar (Gr 2, 1950m) before finishing second in the Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 1m 2f), a spot ahead of Magical. That said, he is quite clearly a different horse with give in the ground and he is unlikely to be seen at his best here.
Win Bright and Normcore both visited last year, with Win Bright adding the Cup to his win in the QEII Cup (Gr 1, 2000m), remaining unbeaten at the Sha Tin 2000 metres, while Normcore finished fourth in the Mile.
However, Danon Premium is the one that appears most likely to topple Magical here.
Like Skalleti and Magical, Danon Premium has form around Champion Stakes winner Addeybb (Pivotal), finishing third to William Haggas’ trainee in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at Randwick earlier this year. That was on a wet track, too, with Danon Premium a superior horse on top of the ground.
In the last 18 months, he has twice been beaten two lengths by the now-retired champion mare Almond Eye (Lord Kanaloa) in the Tenno Sho (Autumn) (Gr 1, 2000m), a key piece of form here.
With Time Warp carving out a steady tempo, expect Danon Premium to have first run on his rivals before holding them at bay late.