Hong Kong: Perfect Match, Witness Hunter should battle it out in Griffin Trophy

With a reliance on imported runners, the Hong Kong racing circuit includes horses primarily from Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Most arrive with established form. For the unraced runners, there is a class of races known as Griffin races that allow them to begin their careers at Sha Tin and Happy Valley racecourses against similar horses.

Sunday at Sha Tin, the $255,457 Griffin Trophy at seven furlongs on turf serves as a lucrative year-end race for those horses.

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In a field of eight, there are two standouts who each has won his last two starts – the Australian-bred 3-year-old geldings Perfect Match and Witness Hunter. They are the only two-time winners in a race with five maidens.

Perfect Match, trained by Danny Shum, has won 2 of 3 starts. After finishing third in his debut on Oct. 13, Perfect Match won a six-furlong race at Sha Tin on Nov. 4 and a seven-furlong race there on Dec. 2. In all of his races, Perfect Match has disputed the pace. He drew away to win the Dec. 2 race by 4 1/2 lengths.

Witness Hunter was fourth and eighth in his first two starts, which came in July and September, and has not lost since. Trained by Frankie Lor, Witness Hunter closed from off the pace to win seven-furlong races at Sha Tin on Oct. 7 and Nov. 10.

Karis Teetan rides Perfect Match, who may face early pressure from Quadruple Double. On Nov. 4, Quadruple Double was in front of Perfect Match into the stretch, but was beaten a nose. Quadruple Double is a maiden after seven starts, and is the most experienced horse in the Griffin Trophy field.

Silvestre de Sousa, the leading rider in Great Britain the last two years, rides Witness Hunter. Perfect Match and Witness Hunter were ridden in their last start by leading rider Zac Purton, who is serving a suspension for a riding infraction.

The only other winner in Sunday’s race is Nordic Warrior, who will attract some support. Nordic Warrior, trained by Richard Gibson, won a six-furlong handicap at Happy Valley on Oct. 28 and was a troubled fourth against a higher class of runners in a race at about a mile and 50 yards there on Nov. 21.

Matthew Chadwick, who was aboard for the Oct. 28 win, has the mount on Nordic Warrior.