Blazing Speed soars to QEII Cup victory at Sha Tin

Blazing Speed gave Tony Cruz his first win as a trainer in the QEII Cup (Tomoya Moriuchi/Horsephotos.com) Blazing Speed (Dylan Thomas) gave trainer Tony Cruz a rare first when causing a minor upset in the HK$20 million Queen Elizabeth II Cup (HK-G1) at Sha Tin Racecourse on Sunday. Cruz, a two-time Hong Kong champion trainer, has won just about all there is to win at Sha Tin, so there are not too many “firsts” left to achieve. But the Hong Kong legend had never managed to lift the prestigious Cup in his current capacity, although he did win the race as a jockey. “I’ve been trying very hard to win this race,” Cruz said. “I managed to do it a few times as a jockey but to do it now as a trainer, I’m very happy about it. I told Neil (Callan) to ride a very patient race, get in midfield, find cover and wait for the straight. He rode a perfect race.” It was also a first win in the race for Callan. The Irishman, who is enjoying his best ever Hong Kong season, gave what is becoming his trademark victory salute to the crowd; standing high in the stirrups, the rider roared with delight and pumped his fist as he swept past the post two lengths clear of a blanket finish for the minors. Japan’s Staphanos (Deep Impact) edged second by a short-head from Australian raider Criterion (Sebring). It was a nose farther back to last year’s winner, Designs On Rome (Holy Roman Emperor), and the same again to fifth-placed Packing Llaregyb (Dylan Thomas).

“He’s been a champion for me,” said Callan, who was
fortunate to suffer no worse than a minor foot injury in a fall at Sha Tin
earlier this month and returned to the saddle last Sunday after missing one race
meeting.

“I’m just lucky to get on him and grateful that I’m able to
come back from the fall and be fit enough to take the ride. It’s been a sticky
month for me with falls and a few glitches but it’s a nice way to come back,” he
added.

Callan enjoyed a dream run in the 2,000-meter contest. Blazing
Speed, winner of the Jockey Club Cup (HK-G2) over the course and distance in November,
sprang from the gate and tucked in to race one off the fence just fore of midrank as the John Moore-trained Same World
(Hawk Wing) set the tempo. The winner was an
ominous presence on the outside entering the home turn and, as the field of 12
swung into the straight, Callan crouched down into the drive. The six-year-old
responded with a decisive turn-of-foot that stopped the clock in 2:02.89.

“He was nice and relaxed in the preliminaries because it’s
a bit daunting, the 2,000 meter start in front of the crowd, it’s quite busy,” Callan
explained. “I kept him calm and relaxed and from the gate he jumped great. I
couldn’t believe it, I landed in my position so early, so quickly, and the rest
was just letting him relax, get a rhythm. Tony always says to me ‘just wait for
the straight, wait for the straight’ so I counted to 10 and waited for the
straight, but when I let him down I thought ‘well he’ll take a bit of getting
now.’

Neil Callan celebrates after Blazing Speed takes QEII Cup at Sha Tin (Tomoya Moriuchi/Horsephotos.com) “Over 2,000 meters, that’s probably the most electric turn of foot he has,” he added. “The race was a little bit stop-start but it got going and slowed down and got going again at the right time for me so it was perfect!” Cruz will now point the British-bred gelding at the Champions & Chater Cup (HK-G1) going 2,400 meters at Sha Tin next month. Blazing Speed won that final leg of the Hong Kong Triple Crown series last season, having also won the first leg, the 1,600-meter Stewards’ Cup, the previous January. “He’s a very straightforward horse — as easy as he appears,” Cruz stated. “We’ll definitely go to the Champions & Chater Cup now, the race he won last year. We could program for elsewhere as well.” The runner-up, Staphanos, could be back at Sha Tin in December according to trainer Hideaki Fujiwara “The Tenno Sho (Autumn) (Jpn-G1) will be the big target and then we would like to come back here in December for the Hong Kong Cup (HK-G1),” Fujiwara said.

“He was settled in the gate
and he doesn’t usually break quickly so I pushed him from the start,” Jockey Yuichi Fukunaga
described his ride aboard Staphanos. “Because of
the good draw, he settled in a good position and was able to travel nicely until
the final turn. I wanted to shift him out at the top of the straight but Blazing
Speed was outside me, so I was not able to push him when I needed to. He ran on
well and showed guts in a powerful run to the finish.”

Military Attack (Oratorio), the 2013 QEII Cup winner, vied for the lead at the
top of the stretch but faded to finish seventh. Britain’s Red Cadeaux (Cadeaux
Genereux) was 11th
and the French raider Smoking Sun (Smart Strike) finished 10th of 12.

“This afternoon’s APQEII Cup was a very
exciting race featuring top-class international contenders and the result speaks
for itself with Blazing Speed an impressive winner, the Japanese horse finishing
second, the Australian horse third and Designs On Rome fourth,” Hong Kong Jockey Club’s CEO
Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said. “Looking at the
ratings, it is a satisfactory result for a race that is one of the top 20 Group
1 races in the world.

“The APQEII Cup’s elite position as an international race
has been enhanced this afternoon. Today’s occasion shows that our vision of
bringing international racing to Hong Kong is firmly on track.

“This year’s APQEII Cup was the 17th edition of the race
under the Audemars Piguet banner. It has been a tremendous partnership and we
are pleased that it will continue as we have extended our collaboration with
Audemars Piguet through 2018.”

The day’s attendance was 31,943, an increase of 5 percent
on 2014, while turnover was the same as last year at HK$1,345 million.

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