Giavellotto bids for back-to-back Longines Hong Kong Vase wins

By Tom Peacock

Marco Botti will be reviving a familiar connection as defending champion Giavellotto returns this Sunday (14 December) for the HK$26 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m).

Before he moved to be a permanent member of the Hong Kong jockey community, Andrea Atzeni would often partner up with his Newmarket-based friend and rode Giavellotto to land the G2 Yorkshire Cup in 2023.

While it was Oisin Murphy in the saddle for a famous success here 12 months ago, Botti called up Atzeni for the mount in October's G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (2400m), where the pair gave themselves every chance in one of Europe's signature prizes and finished a commendable fourth behind Daryz.

Botti, who has claimed top-level races around the world since 2009, is excited about the prospect of Giavellotto repeating the sort of heroics which saw him beat Dubai Honour by two and a half lengths.

“Last year was great,” Botti said. “We went there with no big expectations and when he won it was a great result for us.

“This year, it's probably a slightly better race I'd say in terms of quality. Andrea Atzeni is going to ride him and we can only hope now for it all to go well until next week and to get a decent draw.

“I think the draw is important at Sha Tin, from what I've seen it didn't look like it was going to be a full field, I saw 11 or 12 likely runners. So, fingers crossed for a good run.”

Giavellotto left his home last Friday (5 December) in order to arrive in Sha Tin over the weekend. Botti does not expect his six-year-old to be too busy during morning trackwork.

“He's been good at home," he said.” He did his last piece of work on Thursday, on the Al Bahathri [all-weather] gallop in Newmarket with Marco Ghiani.

“I thought he worked well, he seems, from what we can see, in the same shape as he was last year before Hong Kong although of course there's the last leg of the journey to get over first.”

Owned in partnership between his owner-breeder Scuderia La Tesa and Vaibhav Shah, Giavellotto has only raced four times since his win in Hong Kong.

He posted decent beaten efforts in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic and Coronation Cup before being given a break over the middle of the European summer.

A victory on comeback in the G3 September Stakes at Kempton, defeating the top-class mare Kalpana, set him up for that Arc run with Botti also keeping the title defence in mind.

He continued: “It's important, as Hong Kong is quite late in the season, to keep them fresh. So that's all good and usually he's a good traveller.

“It's been a light campaign this year, he hasn't had many starts and I feel he's still fresh for this race.”