Steve reports from Hong Kong ahead of Sunday’s Longines sponsored International races.
It’s hard to believe it’s 17 years since the mighty New Zealand–bred mare Sunline won the Hong Kong Mile.
It was the first time I’d set foot on Sha Tin racecourse. And Australia didn’t miss out either with Falvelon winning the Hong Kong Sprint. Good heavens, Aushorse and NZTM would’ve been falling over themselves.
Nothing’s stopped me missing the Hong Kong international meeting since. Not even a heart attack, but that’s another story. And, in one sense, there’s not been much to warm the heart since.
Falvelon, trained by Danny Bougoure, returned to win the sprint again in 2001 but we’ve not had a winner since. That is, no other visiting Australian or New Zealand trainers have won the race.
That’s pretty much embarrassing, I reckon. And there won’t be one this year. There are no runners as a consequence of the new quarantine restrictions imposed by the Department of Agriculture and Water resources.
The one saving grace, given that it would be a stretch to fervently claim the success of the Hong Kong based expats, has been the performance of the Australian and New Zealand–bred horses in the races you’d hope they’d dominate – the Sprint and the Mile.
And that looks very likely to continue this year with the Australasian-bred line-up headed by the impressive Sprint candidate Mr Stunning and if he were to win, that should generate some fun spin from the marketers.
Inglis can claim him as he originally sold for $110,000 at the 2013 Great Southern Sale but then New Zealand Bloodstock will point out that he was on-sold at Karaka for NZ$250,000. He was pin-hooked by Lyndhurst Farm. He was, of course, bred by Makybe in Victoria.
But we Anzacs are all on the same side, on Sunday, aren’t we?
Mr Stunning and Lucky Bubbles head the five Australian-bred runners in the Sprint, while Mr Stunning’s John Size-trained stablemates Amazing Kids and D B Pin, who originate from New Zealand, have legitimate claims.
Australian-bred horses won the Sprint each year from 1999 to 2009 and Pins’ son Aerovelocity claimed the prize in 2014 and 2016. The list includes bona fide superstars in Silent Witness, Sacred Kingdom and Fairy King Prawn.
Similarly, the list of Australasian-bred mile winners is impressive – Able Friend, Glorious Days , Ambitious Dragon, Able One, Beauty Flash, The Duke, Lucky Owners and, of course, Sunline.
The numbers are impressive even allowing for the weight of numbers, in terms of runners, being in favour of the southern hemisphere-bred competitors in the two shorter International races.
We could even go further back to the Hong Kong Bowl, the forerunner to the Mile, which we dominated in the 1990s before the rest of the world caught on.
Neville Begg won it in 1993 with the NZ-bred Winning Partners; his son Grahame prepared Australia’s Monopolize to win in 1995 and 1996 and then none other than Bart Cummings followed up, a year later, with Catalan Opening by Kaapstad, so you can guess where he was born and raised.
So, we can barrack for our sprinters and milers this year or for anyone of the Australian jockeys or maybe for Max Dynamite or Tiberian to perform well in the Vase and thus legitimise the Melbourne Cup form.
Or we can set aside the jingoism and simply enjoy the day. I would say that if you only ever attend one race meeting outside Australia (or New Zealand) then it should be this one.
Notwithstanding two disclaimers – one; I do derive some income from the Hong Kong Jockey Club and, two; as a visiting media representative I am afforded access not necessarily enjoyed by all visitors. However, privileges aside, there is nothing quite like tonight’s International Jockeys’ Championship meeting at Happy Valley and no more ecumenical a race meeting than Sunday’s international fare.
The mail tonight is that Hong Kong-based Mauritian Karis Teetan and visiting Frenchman Pierre-Charles Boudot, who soon takes up a short term HK contract, have drawn the best mounts in the IJC races.
By the way, if the track is rated good and the barrier draw kind then have something on Talismanic in the Vase on Sunday.