No Hong Kong for Val Royal

Val Royal will miss the Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin on Dec. 16 after having suffered a quarter crack in training on Friday.

The winner of the Breeders' Cup Mile, * had been scheduled to depart for Hong Kong from Los Angeles on Sunday morning, but those plans have been scrapped by trainer Julio Canani.

Val Royal will remain in training, however. He will be fitted with a patch and be aimed at the Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita in March.

"It's not bad," Canani said. "We'll be back on the track this week. It was a blind quarter crack. It's not infected, so we got lucky there."

Val Royal would have been the first Breeders' Cup winner to participate in the Hong Kong International Races. He will be replaced in the Cup by the Indian-bred Saddle Up. Now trained in Singapore, Saddle Up recently finished second to four-time Group 1 winner Kutub in the Singapore Gold Cup.

The American contingent in Hong Kong has now been reduced to four. They are Forbidden Apple in the Mile, Morluc and Nuclear Debate in the Sprint, and White Heart in the Vase.

- additional reporting by Steve Andersen

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