Tony Cruz left Sha Tin Racecourse this afternoon with a hat-trick of Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup wins securely tied-up .
But it was Helene Super Star and not the trainer’s perceived prime hope, Blazing Speed, that claimed the Group 1 honour and the victor’s share of HK$10 million.
“I hope it keeps going this way – I don’t know which horse we’ll have next year but I hope we keep winning it!” said Cruz, who still needs two more uninterrupted wins to match the late Ivan Allan’s five in a row.
Last year Blazing Speed followed California Memory’s 2013 triumph to give Cruz back-to-back wins in the 2400m test but that talented gelding, successful in last month’s G1 Audemars Piguet QEII Cup (2000m), never settled for Neil Callan behind a moderate tempo this time. When push came to shove, the race favourite was no more than the fourth prong in a thrilling five-horse tussle to the wire, which Helene Super Star edged by a short-head.
Douglas Whyte enjoyed a dream run on the winner who broke smartly from the inside barrier and quickly relaxed against the rail in fourth position. A little ahead on Whyte’s left periphery, Joao Moreira struggled to settle the John Moore-trained Helene Happy Star, whose stablemate Same World dictated the pace up front. On Helene Super Star’s flank, Blazing Speed raised his head and pulled impatiently.
“Going past the winning post first time I could see Neil was struggling to get him to drop the bit,” observed Whyte. “Joao was in front of him doing the same thing and I was on the rails just enjoying a sweet run. The two of them were burning petrol and that’s probably taken its toll in the end.
“I was gifted gate one and sometimes gate one can work to your benefit or against you but it certainly worked to my benefit today,” continued the South African. “The pace was a nice galloping pace, they didn’t go too slow – or definitely not too hard – and I was in the right place the whole way through. The imperative point is that my horse was relaxed, comfortable where he was, and I managed to follow Khaya who got off the fence at the 600m. I got on the back of him and he led me into the race.”
Same World faltered and faded on the top turn as Khaya bustled his way to the lead, but with 350m to race the John Size runner’s bolt had also been shot and it was Helene Super Star who grasped the advantage. But the battle was still there for the losing: Helene Happy Star ground his way into contention at 300m; Blazing Speed, five wide on the turn, and Dominant, seven-wide, delivered challenges deeper out; the four sparred down the stretch and it was Dominant, galvanised under a Tommy Berry drive, who almost stole the spoils, failing on a nod of heads as the duo flashed past the post.
Helene Happy Star was a neck away in third and Blazing Speed another short-head back in fourth. It was yet another short-head to the late-on-the-scene Moore runner Harbour Master in fifth.
The victory was a career high effort from the winner, successful in the G2 UAE Derby in 2013, who had finished sixth behind Blazing Speed in the AP QEII Cup last time.
“I must say my horse showed a bit of tenacity today,” said Whyte after the five-year-old War Front gelding had stopped the clock at 2m 27.52s. “He’s been a bit weak, mentally, in the past and he’s looked for a few excuses but the cheek-pieces and the trial last week, those were the deciding factors – it took the wind out of his sails and made him think more positively.
“I mentioned to Tony last time that the horse still had a length or two inside of him and I believed that if he could get something more out of the horse, mentally, that he would be a force to be reckoned with in this race. He put the cheek-pieces on, he trialled with them on and he won the trial, so it was all systems go from there on in.”
Cruz had high hopes for his charge going into today’s historic race, which was staged as an international G1 contest for the first time.
“I wasn’t really surprised today, I thought he was a Derby horse when he first came here – we had high expectations for the horse but he had little problems and he’s just got a real temper on him. We put the cheek-pieces on today and they made a big difference,” he said, adding “we’re definitely going places with this horse now that he’s proven he’s a Group 1 horse. There are a lot of places that we can go.”
Dominant, meanwhile, could be back on his travels to Australia after going so close to winning a race in which he has twice previously been third.
“I thought Dominant was unlucky,” said Moore. “He was knocked sideways coming into the straight and Tommy was of the opinion that throughout the race he was hampered at certain stages and was getting off-balance. He showed a lot of heart though, he got turned sideways and was only beaten a short-head. But racing is racing.
“I’ll put it to the syndicate to take him back to Australia and then come back for the Vase here in December. He’s shown that I can bring him back and get him ready to win major races so I’ll be working very hard to get the syndicate’s approval for the Caulfield Cup and the Melbourne Cup.
“Helene Happy Star just didn’t settle and that took a little bit of the edge off him,” he added.
