Size controls Hong Kong sprinter market

HONG KONG - John Size, well on his way to his 10th Hong Kong training title since 2001, has cornered the market on sprinters.

Size swept the trifecta Sunday in the Group 1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize with Ivictory, Mr Stunning, and Beat the Clock. Those three, and the sidelined Group 1 winner D B Pin, represent 10 of Size’s 73 winners at the current Hong Kong season, which began in September. Those four horses have accounted for four group stakes wins this year.

The Chairman’s Sprint Prize was the fourth Group 1 sprint of the season in Hong Kong. Size has won three with three different horses. Mr Stunning won the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint against an international field in December. D B Pin won the Group 1 Centenary Sprint Cup in January.

Ivictory won his group stakes debut in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize. Ivictory, a 4-year-old Australian-bred gelding, has won seven of eight starts in a career that began last May.

As of Sunday, Size, 63, did not have race plans for his first three finishers in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize. He was looking as much to the 2018-19 season as the current season, which ends in July.

“I think that’s it for those three horses,” he said. “The only races left are handicaps and they’d have to carry a lot of weight.”

Hong Kong Jockey Club business

The Hong Kong Jockey Club reported an ontrack crowd of 48,242 for Sunday’s program, which played out on a humid afternoon with temperatures in the low 80s. All-sources handle was approximately $194.4 million.

This was the first year three Group 1 races – the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, Champions Mile, and Chairman’s Sprint Prize – were presented on the same program in the spring. The most prominent day on the Hong Kong calendar is an international day in December with four Group 1 races.