Three international Group 2s at Sha Tin Sunday provided the overture for the
Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) on December 11, and Hong Kong’s star
performers were out in force in preparation for the main events. But the day’s
supposed Big Three all played false notes, although none of them left
connections without hope of improvement at the HKIR themselves.
The greatest sensation was the overthrow of Ambitious Dragon in the Jockey
Club Mile. Maxime Guyon had a nightmare run on the champion finding himself
caught three or four wide throughout and perhaps closer to the lead than he
would have liked. As a result, although the horse’s phenomenal acceleration took
him to the lead halfway up the straight, he had nothing left with which to
resist Destined for Glory, who came with a storming run under Tim Clark to nail
him on the line. Three-quarters of a length back in third came the John
Size-trained Flying Blue.
“He traveled really well,” said Clark of the winner, “and obviously it was a
big advantage to us with the favorite tracking up wide. But he’s got a lovely
turn of foot and he was strong all the way to the line.”
“It was a muddling pace and we were able to take advantage of it,” said the
winning trainer John Moore. “But he deserved that win. He’s finished really
strongly and now he’ll go for the CXHK Mile next month.”
Ambitious Dragon’s trainer Tony Millard was hardly downhearted however.
“He was up very wide and quite close up and that’s not his style,” said the
South African, “but he still went down by just a nostril. He hadn’t run for
seven weeks and as things panned out we didn’t win, but the horse ran a great
race. He was right on the day and of course we were hoping to win, but that was
a great lead up to the (Hong Kong) Cup.”
“He’s still a champion. Don’t worry about that,” was Guyon’s comment.
Earlier the Jockey Club Sprint had provided the first surprise, albeit a
relatively mild one, as the Danny Shum-trained Little Bridge, expertly ridden by
Gerald Mosse, proved just too strong for Entrapment. The son of Faltaat got
first run on the favorite, and hard though Douglas Whyte tried to pull back the
deficit he still had three quarters of a length to find at the line.
“I got the chance to ride him and we had the perfect race one back, one off,”
said Mosse. “He was always traveling very easily. I didn’t have to make him work
too hard, and I think we were able to leave something for the big race (the Hong
Kong Sprint).”
“We trained him for the (Hong Kong) Derby last year,” said a jubilant Shum,
“but he wasn’t able to get the trip, and after that he was exhausted. So we gave
him a good long break, and he’s come back so well. This year he looks fantastic,
and he’s just been improving race by race. Now I hope we can win the big one in
December.”
Entrapment also ran what may have been a decent trial as he made up ground in
the straight without being able to get in a blow at the winner.
The Jockey Club Cup provided another surprise as Thumbs Up triumphed for
trainer Caspar Fownes and jockey Brett Prebble in a tight finish from Pure
Champion and Irian. The surprise, though, was not that seasoned Group 1
performer Thumbs Up was capable of victory. It was that California Memory could
finish only fourth. To be fair to the favorite, he had a very troubled run in
the straight, being denied openings at least twice.
It was Thumbs Up’s first victory at about 1 1/4 miles after he had finished
third to California Memory over a mile on his previous outing, but still his
trainer felt he might ask Sunday’s winner to stretch out even further next time.
“He let down really well,” said Fownes, “and he was strong to the line. The
plan is to send him for the Vase rather than the Cup because Ambitious Dragon
just looks too strong, and the gray (California Memory) looked very unlucky
today too. But we’ll have a think about it.”
Tony Cruz, trainer of California Memory, was naturally very disappointed.
“He never had a run in the straight,” said Cruz. “He was boxed in all the
time and just never had a run.”