Thanks Forever, Big Party intrigue in Hong Kong Reunification Cup

Rising 3-year-olds Thanks Forever and Big Party at the most interesting entrants in the featured Hong Kong Reunification Cup on a rare Monday card at Sha Tin.

Race 7 of 10, the Reunification Cup is a Class 2 handicap carded at 1,200 meters for horses rated 80-100, and it drew 14 entrants, Thanks Forever and Big Party the big movers in official ratings off their most recent starts. Thanks Forever, an Australian import trained by John Moore – himself an Australian import – had his rating elevated 14 points to 92. Big Party, another Australian-bred, this one trained by Frankie Lor, came up 13 points to hit a mark of 87.

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Thanks Forever has the flashier record of the pair and has scored three easy wins in his three Hong Kong starts, one last racing season and two this year at the Class 3 level. But leading jockey Zac Purton, who rode both horses in recent wins, winds up on Big Party on Monday. Big Party had a setback earlier this season that kept him out of action a couple of months, and he was a somewhat disappointing fifth in his return to racing in April. Big Party, though, was back to his previously impressive self on May 18, roaring to a three-length win with Purton in the irons for the first time.

Karis Teetan takes the mount now on Thanks Forever, who is stretched out Monday from two straight-course 1,000-meter races to this one-turn 1,200-meter dash.

Raging Storm, rated 93, is a 4-year-old far more exposed than Thanks Forever and Big Party but probably can improve on two seventh-place finishes that followed two wins, all four starts at this Class 2 level. The loss two back came with a cutback to a straight 1,000 meters, though Raging Storm had no obvious excuse for another seventh last out at a 1,200-meter trip he appears to prefer.