Rise High enters Premier Plate off strong effort

Rise High, the 5-year-old French-bred gelding, got within 1 1/4 lengths of winning his first group stakes in Hong Kong when he finished second in the Group 1 Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup at Sha Tin Racecourse on May 26.

Sent off at 44-1, Rise High rallied from last of nine in the race at 1 1/2 miles to be closest to winning favorite Exultant at the wire.

Rise High will appear in his fifth group stakes, and fourth consecutive such race, in Sunday’s Group 3 Premier Plate at 1 1/8 miles at Sha Tin. The $416,021 Premier Plate is the final group-level stakes of the 2018-19 Hong Kong season, which ends on July 14. The 2019-20 season will begin in early September.

Rise High, trained by Caspar Fownes, shares topweight of 133 pounds in the Premier Plate, which drew a field of 11. Time Warp, a two-time Group 1 winner in late 2017 and early 2018, also carries 133 pounds, but that is largely on the basis of his past achievements. Time Warp is winless in seven starts, since the Group 3 Sa Sa Ladies’ Purse at 1 1/8 miles at Sha Tin last October. Time Warp was seventh in the Champions and Chater Cup.

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Rise High won the Group 3 Golden Fleece Stakes for 2-year-olds at Leopardstown, Ireland, in 2016 when racing under the name Landfall. Horses frequently have their names changed when they are sent to Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, Rise High has won 4 of 15 starts, including three consecutive races in the spring and summer of 2018. During the current season, Rise High’s only win in seven starts has been a handicap at a mile at Sha Tin in March in which closed from well off the pace.

The Premier Plate distance should suit Insayshable, who will carry 122 pounds in his first start since finishing a troubled third by three-quarters of a length in the Group 3 Lion Rock Trophy at a mile at Sha Tin on June 2.

The Premier Plate is the eighth race on a 10-race program. Earlier on the card, Time to Celebrate will have his group stakes debut in the Group 3 Premier Cup at seven furlongs on turf.

Trained by John Size, Time to Celebrate was fourth in a handicap at a mile at Sha Tin on April 28, finishing 3 1/4 lengths behind Ka Ying Star, who was later second in the Lion Rock Trophy.

Time to Celebrate, a 5-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding, will carry 122 pounds, 11 less than topweight Pingwu Spark, a 6-year-old New Zealand-bred gelding who was fifth in the Group 1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize at six furlongs at Sha Tin on April 28.

Pingwu Spark was scratched from the Lion Rock Trophy because of a bout with colic, according to the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s website.