Hong Kong racing looks forward to season's big stakes finale
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A trio of Class 3 handicaps top a nine-race card on Wednesday at Happy Valley Racecourse, but the Hong Kong circuit this week revolves around a trio of Group 1 races Sunday at Sha Tin.
This is the last major card of the Hong Kong racing season, featuring the $3.22 million QE II Cup over 2,000 meters, the $2.58 million Champions Mile, and the $2.32 million Chairman’s Sprint Prize over 1,200 meters.
Golden Sixty, Hong Kong’s best horse and among the highest-rated horse anywhere in the world, dominates the Champions Mile, but Japanese shippers could dominate the other two races. Danon Smash is the lone international ship-in for the Sprint Prize but won the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint in December, an while he faces 11 locally based rivals, no one in that bunch has proven to be anywhere near top class on an international basis.
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Four Japanese horses are entered in the QE II Cup, a formidable quartet indeed. Four-year-old filly Daring Tact won Japan’s fillies Triple Crown in 2020, sweeping the Group 1 Oka Sho over 1,600 meters, the Group 1 Yushun Himba over 2,400 meters, and the Group 1 Shuka Sho over 2,000 meters before ending her campaign with a third-place finish in the Japan Cup, beaten only by the great Almond Eye and the elite colt, Contrail.
Loves Only You exits a third-place finish in the Group 1 Sheema Classic on the Dubai World Cup undercard, while Glory Vase won the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase in December 2019 in his previous trip to Hong Kong. Seven-year-old Kiseki makes his Hong Kong debut as the longest price among Japan’s entrants in the Sunday headliner.
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Golden Sixty will have only five rivals in the Champions Mile, where he’ll be an overwhelming favorite to win his 14th race in a row.
As for the Wednesday action, the Class 3s start in race 1 (first post 6:45 a.m. Eastern) with an unusually long race by Happy Valley standards, a 2,200-meter test run around three turns and open to horses rated 80 to 60. Xian Bae Qui and Dynamic Eagle are the sharp entrants here, the former second in a race like this one on Feb. 17 and a Class 3 Happy Valley winner over 1,800 meters in March. Dynamic Eagle carries just 121 pounds, 12 fewer than top-rated Golden Spectrum, as he steps up to Class 3 after winning three times at the Class 4 level – twice going 2,200 meters at Happy Valley – in his last four starts.
You can catch all the Hong Kong action, both Wednesday and Sunday, at DRFBets.com.