Hong Kong: Winning Dreamer tests perfect record in Chinese Club Challenge Cup

Winning Dreamer is unbeaten in six career starts but surely will be tested Friday at Sha Tin in the Group 3, $450,000 Chinese Club Challenge Cup.

That 1,400-meter race, the eighth of 11 on a special New Year’s Day card, shares top billing with race 3, the Group 3, $450,000 Bauhinia Sprint Trophy over a straight 1,000 meters. Both races are run as handicaps on a card that starts at 11:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, with live video and wagering available at DRFBets.com.

Trained by Frankie Lor, Winning Dreamer, a 4-year-old New Zealand-bred, began his career last season in Class 4 competition, won easily in his debut and his second start, a Class 3, and was done for 2019-20. Back in September for the 2020-21 Hong Kong season, Winning Dreamer already has four wins during this campaign, two in Class 3 competition, the last two in Class 2’s. After a perfect-trip, one-length win Dec. 13, his Hong Kong rating has risen to 110, a mighty jump from the 52 at which he began this past May.

Winning Dreamer gave nine pounds to the runner-up in his most recent start but on Friday he is the one getting weight from all but Sky Darci, who, like Winning Dreamer, carries 113 pounds. That’s 20 fewer than top-rated Ka Ying Star and six fewer than key contenders Mighty Giant and Fat Turtle. Winning Dreamer, the mount of Vincent Ho, has raced at 1,000 and 1,200 meters so far and stretches to 1,400 for the first time Friday while tackling much stronger competition than he’s yet beaten.

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Sky Darci, the other low-eight, also merits consideration. He’s 3 for 3 during the ongoing Hong Kong season and 5 for 8 overall, and in his most recent start was able to navigate a major jump from Class 3 to Class 1 competition when he won a 1,600-meter handicap on Nov. 29 at Sha Tin. Sky Darci was up by a nose under 116 pounds that day and breaks from post 1 under jockey Joao Moreira on Friday.

Ka King Star set the pace and finished fifth in the 2019 renewal of this race and will be hard-pressed to beat this group giving so much weight, but Mighty Giant is very interesting. Zac Purton is back aboard Mighty Giant after getting off in favor of Beauty Generation when the massive gelding (Mighty Giant weighs in at nearly 1,250 pounds) finished seventh in the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile. That was Mighty Giant’s second straight start over 1,600 meters, which seems to be farther than ideal. Mighty Giant earned a move into stakes racing after stylishly winning a pair of 1,400-meter handicaps in October at Sha Tin, and Mighty Giant has six wins and two seconds from his eight 1,400-meter starts.

Fat Turtle is out to 1,400 meters after rallying from 13th to finish fifth in the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint over 1,200 meters on Dec. 13.

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The Bauhinia Sprint Trophy drew only five entrants, with Computer Patch dropping from an even sixth-place finish in the Hong Kong Sprint. Trainer Tony Cruz told Hong Kong Jockey Club publicity that Computer Patch will benefit from cutting back to 1,000 meters, and indeed, Computer Patch has won both his starts down Sha Tin’s straight course. But he also must tote 133 pounds Friday, giving as much as 20 pounds to his quartet of opponents.

Stronger gets 14 pounds from Computer Patch, Explosive Witness 20 pounds, and both horses have found success in 1,000-meter Hong Kong races, albeit, in Explosive Witness’s case, racing around a turn at Happy Valley.