Hong Kong speedster invades for Santa Anita Sprint Championship

ARCADIA, Calif. – Rich Tapestry, a stakes winner in Hong Kong and Dubai, will make his American debut in Saturday’s $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship, a race that trainer Michael Chang hopes will lead to a start in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 1.

Rich Tapestry cleared quarantine Monday and trained at Santa Anita on Monday and Tuesday.

“He’s settling well,” Chang said Tuesday. “It’s a new environment.”

The Grade 1 Santa Anita Sprint Championship will be the first start for the 6-year-old Rich Tapestry since an eighth-place finish in the $451,500 Sprint Cup in Hong Kong in April. In March in Dubai, Rich Tapestry won a $200,000 stakes over six furlongs and was a game second to Sterling City in the $2 million Golden Shaheen, the top sprint on the Dubai World Cup program.

The Santa Anita Sprint Championship will offer a stern test to Rich Tapestry. The field is expected to include Secret Circle, the winner of the 2013 BC Sprint, and Goldencents, the winner of the 2013 BC Dirt Mile.

The Santa Anita Sprint Championship is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth for the winner to the BC Sprint.

Rich Tapestry has won 6 of 26 starts and earned $1,269,533. The Santa Anita Sprint Championship will be his first start on dirt since a win in a handicap race at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong in July 2012.

To prepare for Saturday’s race, Chang said, Rich Tapestry had two trial races from the gate in Hong Kong, one over five furlongs and another over six furlongs in mid-September that had a field of 12. In the latter race, Rich Tapestry closed from behind.

“At home, I gave him a good preparation for U.S. racing,” Chang said. “I would like to see him run a good race. I think he can finish in the first three.”

At the same time, Chang has scouted the competition and realizes whom Rich Tapestry must beat.

“I watched the replays of Secret Circle,” he said. “I think he’s a good sprinter.”