This year’s Hong Kong International Vase promises to be one of the best 2400 metre races of the year.
The official announcement of invited runners to the 2017 Hong Kong International races (HKIR) won’t be made until next Wednesday, but early intelligence indicates the four race numbers will be strong despite the absence of runners from Australia and New Zealand, and the Hong Kong Vase (Gr 1, 2400m) may well have greater gravitas than in the past.
The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Enable (Nathaniel) aside, the Vase line-up will be as strong as the HKJC could hope for and will be likely headed by the Breeders’ Cup Turf (Gr 1, 12f) first and third in Talismanic (Medaglia d’Oro) and the globetrotting Highland Reel (Galileo).
They are likely to be joined by the Kikuka Sho (Japanese St Leger) (Gr 1, 3000m) winner Kiseki who is by Rulership (King Kamehameha), who ventured to Hong Kong to win the QEII Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) in 2012.
Max Dynamite (Great Journey) and Tiberian (Tiberius Caesar), who finished third and seventh respectively in the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) are also likely runners along with as many as five or six other competitors from the UK, Ireland and Europe.
The generally underrated Talismanic, prepared by Andre Fabre, should be the most favoured runner in my view. Right now, you’d be taking the odds to him arriving safely in Hong Kong and getting his preferred good ground but they’re risks I’d be prepared to take.
This four-year-old entire has won four of his five starts on good ground, including his past three on end. His only dry track ‘miss’ was in the 2016 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, after which he was immediately spelled which suggests he’d had enough in that preparation.
Fabre has also spoken of the possibility of Talismanic contesting next year’s Dubai World Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) given the turn of foot he has displayed on occasions. “He could win a good race over a mile and a quarter (2000 metres), he has got speed enough for that,” Fabre said after the Breeders’ Cup meeting.
The best measure of Talismanic probably comes from his stablemate Cloth Of Stars (Sea The Stars). They finished alongside each other in the Prix Foy (Gr 2, 2400m) before Cloth Of Stars beat all but Enable in the Arc.
Highland Reel has raced 17 times, in six countries, for five wins and seven placings from the time we saw him run third to Winx (Street Cry) in the 2015 Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m). He was beaten a half length into second place behind Satono Crown (Marju) in last year’s Vase. Satono Crown stretched the near unbeatable Kitasan Black (Black Tide) in the recent Tenno Sho Autumn (Gr 1, 2000m).
Highland Reel, who won the 2015 Vase, is by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) from the Australian-bred mare Hveger (Danehill), the sister to Elvstroem and half-sister to Haradasun (Fusaichi Pegasus). She’s also produced the dual Derby (Gr 1, 1m4f) placed Idaho, a brother to Highland Reel, and the brothers finished third and fourth behind Enable in this year’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 1, 1m4f) at Ascot.
Given the recently imposed quarantine restrictions on Australian horses returning from Hong Kong, that Hveger connection is about as close as we’ll get to a runner this year. Club officials do hope the quarantine restrictions will be lifted early in 2018.
Highland Reel has become the contemporary Cirrus Des Aigles (Even Top) – the horse who travels and performs to his level so frequently that he can provide some sort of measure between horses around the globe.
Corine Barande-Barbe, who trained Cirrus Des Aigles, will return to Hong Kong this year with Garlingari (Linngari) – seventh in last year’s Vase and a dual Group winner in France in September – but he’s expected to bypass the Vase in favour of the Hong Kong Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) this time around.
Also among the entries for the Vase is the Breeders’ Cup Turf runner-up Beach Patrol (Lemon Drop Kid), who had won successive Grade One races in the States, but he is unlikely to make the trip.
Tiberian and Max Dynamite exit Werribee as they bid to join Dunaden (Nicobar) (2011) and Red Cadeaux (Cadeaux Genereux) (2012) and Highland Reel himself, in 2015, as recent Hong Kong Vase winners who have come via a Melbourne spring campaign.
Tiberian, trained by Alain Couteil, ran very well when four and five wide throughout from gate 22 in the Melbourne Cup. Tiberian does boast two wins over Talismanic, albeit on soft ground.
The Willie Mullins-trained Max Dynamite finished a solid third in the Cup. Mullins had Simenon (Marju) run fifth in the 2013 Vase when he progressed via the Melbourne and Japan Cups.
Likely high profile runners in the Cup and the Hong Kong Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) include a returning Neorealism (Neo Universe), from Japan, who won the QEII Cup earlier this year, and the David O’Meara trained Suedois (Le Havre) who was an arguably unlucky fourth in the Breeders Cup Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) earlier this month.