A smile spread across the face of trainer Danny Shum and the connections of Romantic Warrior the instant the barrier draw was revealed for Sunday’s (10 December) G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m).
Seven has been a particularly lucky number so far.
“Last year in the Hong Kong Cup we drew seven. Also in the Cox Plate, we drew seven.” said owner Peter Lau, who had picked the slot at random at the ceremony in Sha Tin’s parade ring.
Golden Sixty must overcome the widest draw of all in stall 14 if he is to reclaim his G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) crown on Sunday (10 December), in a turn of events which drew audible gasps from the assembled audience at Thursday morning’s (7 December) barrier allocation ceremony in Sha Tin’s iconic parade ring.
Golden Sixty won his first LONGINES Hong Kong Mile in 2020 from box seven of ten and 12 months later he followed up when peeling to the outer after an inside trip from stall two.
Ireland’s champion trainer Aidan O’Brien readily agrees he has brought his best team ever to attack the four Group 1 races in Sunday’s (10 December) LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) at Sha Tin.
He is the only trainer this year to have runners in all four of the big races.
O’Brien’s assault kicks off with Warm Heart in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m); Aesop’s Fables in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m); Cairo in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) and four-year-old colt Luxembourg in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m).
Andrea Atzeni has hit the ground running in Hong Kong and will bid to underline his potential as one of the brightest talents in the weighing room with two rides at the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) at Sha Tin on Sunday (10 December).
The jockey won the Group 1 Prix Morny aboard Vandeek in August but made the decision to depart Great Britain for Hong Kong shortly afterwards and he has already made an immediate impact with the locals in the first few months of his initial stint.
SHA TIN SELECTIONS
(Sunday, December 10, 2023)
Race 1: #10 Storm Rider, #6 Gorgeous Win, #12 Round The Globe, #13 Lucky Planet
Race 2: #13 G Liner, #6 Romantic Hero, #9 Winning Data, #3 Eighty Light Years
Race 3: #9 Global Harmony, #7 Simple Hedge, #3 Tamra Blitz, #5 Amazing Victory
Race 4: #3 Zeffiro, #8 Lebensstil, #9 Warm Heart, #5 West Wind Blows
Race 5: #5 Victor The Winner, #2 Wellington, #1 Lucky Sweynesse, #8 Jasper Krone
The lightly raced gelding Mazita, a winner of two of his last four starts, will be favored to win his debut at a mile at Scone Racecourse in Australia on Thursday evening.
Mazita, trained at Scone by Lyle Chandler, beat winners for the first time in a handicap at 7 1/4 furlongs at Muswellbrook on Nov. 24, closing from fourth of seven as the 3-5 favorite. The style of the win signifies that a slightly longer distance is within range for the 4-year-old Mazita.
The recent win was Mazita’s second start following a layoff of nearly five months.
Vincent Ho claimed a hugely popular first victory in the LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship thanks to a beautifully judged front-running success on Tomodachi Kokoroe in the fourth and final leg at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (6 December).
Rachel King, Ryan Moore and Zac Purton had each claimed a maximum 12 points with wins in the opening three races of the challenge, though it was the ultra-consistent Lyle Hewitson who led going into the decider thanks to two seconds and a third.
The filly Cosy Corner will be a danger on or near the lead in a six-furlong handicap at Gosford Racecourse in Australia on Wednesday evening with two worthy rivals in Storm the Ramparts and Fameux expected to be in close pursuit.
Cosy Corner won a maiden race at Gosford in her sixth career start on Nov. 14. She stalked the early pace and won by slightly more than a length as the 7-5 favorite. On Nov. 25, Cosy Corner set the pace and was beaten slightly less than a half-length at 1-2. Both races were run at six furlongs.
Bauyrzhan Murzabayev has never looked at a challenge he didn’t want to tackle head on and the man from Almaty in Kazakhstan will line up for a first crack in the LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship hungry to showcase his talents on a new stage.
Murzabayev represents Germany in the Happy Valley spectacular on Wednesday evening (6 December) and that is where he will once again be based in 2024, after a one-year hiatus in which he sampled life in France at the invitation of 31-time champion trainer Andre Fabre.
Faced with the honour of training potentially Singapore’s last champion and international runner, Dan Meagher isn’t under-estimating the challenge for Lim’s Kosciuszko in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin on Sunday (10 December).
With racing to officially end on the island after 180 years with the running of the 100th edition of the Singapore Gold Cup in October 2024, Meagher is keen to add another accolade to the six-year-old gelding’s glittering career, which includes wins from 1200m to 2000m and seven Group One victories.
