Hong Kong’s long and storied racing heritage is celebrated at Sha Tin racecourse on Saturday, 10 January when the feature event on the 10-race card is the Hong Kong Jockey Club 130th Anniversary Cup.
In keeping with Hong Kong racing’s tradition for competitive sport, 14 talented contenders will go to post for the Class 2 handicap over 1200m, including a small clutch of promising four-year-old newcomers, two of which hold HKG1 BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) entries.
Skyrockets (129lb) is not engaged in Hong Kong’s blue riband event, which will be staged at Sha Tin on 15 March, but Ricky Yiu’s charge already boasts high-class form in Europe. A Listed winner in France, the Myboycharlie four-year-old finished a fair eighth of 12 in the G1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains (1600m) at Longchamp last spring and has caught the eye in a couple of barrier trials under Saturday’s pilot, Neil Callan.
The most recent of those trials, at the end of December, saw Skyrockets travel strongly under a hold as he rolled home fourth behind the smart galloper Exciting Dream. Callan is optimistic that his mount has a bright future.
“He’s a nice horse with plenty of scope and this is a good race to start him off in,” said the rider. “The draw’s (14) going to be tricky so we’ll just have to see what happens, but he’s a talented horse looking forward - one for the future.”
Two other Hong Kong debutants for the future could be the aforementioned prospective Derby duo, the John Moore-trained Apache Spirit (127lb) and the David Ferraris-trained Dynamism (125lb). The former landed a 1600m Listed contest on his last start in France when trained by Andre Fabre and will break from Gate 3 on Saturday under Umberto Rispoli.
Dynamism trialled as recently as Tuesday and the G1 German Derby sixth showed promise in the 800m heat despite running home last behind Glorious Days. Nash Rawiller educated the strong-pulling New Approach gelding at the tail that day and passed the post under a tight hold.
That trio faces a stiff task first-up against established rivals. Joao Moreira will bid for back-to-back wins on the Moore-trained Let Me Go (131lb), who held Key Witness (131lb) by half a length over the course and distance on 14 December. The latter re-opposes and Tony Cruz’s charge, the mount of Douglas Whyte, has a handy 4lb pull in the weights. Cruz is also set to saddle California Bounty (129lb).
I’m In Charge, a dual course and distance winner earlier this term for Caspar Fownes, benefits from Vincent Ho’s 2lb allowance and will carry 129lb.
Maxime Guyon comes in for the ride on the consistent You Read My Mind (127lb), who continues to climb the ratings and was a good second to Tour De Force over 1000m on his last start, back in early December.
The field also features the Richard Gibson-trained Jazzy Feeling (127lb), Precision King (126lb) from the Benno Yung yard, the Michael Chang-trained Our Folks (124lb), Victorious (124lb), trained by John Size, the Chris So-trained Little Men (123lb) and the Dennis Yip-trained Choice Treasure (118lb).
The Hon C Y Leung, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, will be in attendance to present the winning trophy.
The 10-race card kicks off at 1pm with the Path Of Progress Handicap (1200m) and the afternoon also includes a classy all-weather contest, the Class 1 Commitment And Caring Handicap (1200m).
