Ouija Board confirmed for Vase

Ouija Board has raced only four times so far in 2005 (Joseph DiOrio/Horsephotos.com)

Champion and European Horse of the Year OUIJA BOARD (GB) (Cape Cross [Ire]) will run in next Sunday’s
Hong Kong Vase (HK-G1) at Sha Tin, conditioner Ed Dunlop confirmed Sunday.

The
four-year-old,
who was fifth behind Alkaased (Kingmambo) in the November 27 Japan Cup (Jpn-G1) in Tokyo, will
take on the 1 1/2-mile contest rather than the Hong Kong Cup (HK-G1) over 1 1/4 miles.

“Ouija Board had been
75 percent
certain to run in the Vase, but now Alkaased doesn’t go, that is the race we’ll
go for,” Dunlop
said. “Ouija Board lost very little weight as a result of her good run in Japan and has retained
her form well. I think she would have finished closer if she hadn’t got a little
bump inside the
final furlong.

“On reflection it is possible she went too soon (in the Japan Cup),” Dunlop
added. “Kieren (Fallon)
felt he kicked on
too early, but I am not complaining with her effort in finishing fifth.”

Dunlop
revealed that he
feared the surface would be too firm for the filly in Tokyo.

“I had no idea how
she would
stand up to it after her trouble with a fractured
splint and then a quarter-crack this year, but
she came out of it with no problem,” he said. “She is such a good mover. She
will prefer the
ground at Sha Tin, which will be more forgiving. She takes her traveling around
the world so
well, she just eats and sleeps, so she’s taking the simple hop from Japan to
Hong Kong in her
stride.”