By Leo Schlink
Brett Crawford celebrated the most significant triumph of a burgeoning Hong Kong, China career when the South African combined with familiar ally Karis Teetan to land the HK$4.2 million G3 Sa Sa Ladies’ Purse Handicap (1800m) with Encountered (115lb) at Sha Tin on Sunday (9 November).
Paul Lally:
R1 1-3-4-8
R2 6-5-3-10
R3 4-12-1-2
R4 8-1-7-10
R5 5-2-1-4
R6 7-1-4-9
R7 13-2-14-9
R8 2-11-9-7
R9 2-5-11-13
R10 13-2-11-8
Best Bet R7 N13 Californiatotality
Longshot R10 N13 Mickley
Play R8 QQP 2-9-11
Tom Wood:
R1: 3-8-1-5
R2: 3-11-5-6
R3: 4-1-14-12
R5: 4-5-2-1
Champion jockey Zac Purton believes the best is yet to come from Cap Ferrat (127lb) as he prepares to ride the Francis Lui-trained galloper for the first time in Sunday’s HK$4.2 million G3 Sa Sa Ladies’ Purse Handicap (1800m) at Sha Tin.
Remarkably, the sole victory on the five-year-old’s 21-race record (including 13 in Australia for trainer Chris Waller) is the 2025 BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m), but Purton thinks it’s just a matter of tapping the Snitzel gelding’s potential.
By Leo Schlink
Preparing to contest the LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship (LONGINES IJC) next month, Hollie Doyle opened her latest Hong Kong stint in perfect fashion at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (5 November), striking in tandem with familiar ally Run Run Smart (122lb) in the Class 4 Japan Racing Association Trophy Handicap (1200m).
By Declan Schuster
One of world racing’s leading female riders, Hollie Doyle, will begin her short-term contract in Hong Kong on Wednesday night (5 November) at Happy Valley, where she takes seven rides across the nine-race fixture.
Doyle, 29, has five Hong Kong wins. She began riding in 2013, and since then has won 10 Group 1 races before becoming Great Britain’s most successful female jockey by surpassing Hayley Turner with a 1,023rd British winner at Ascot in May, 2025.
When weights were announced in mid-September for Monday’s Group 1 Melbourne Cup at Flemington Racecourse in Australia, the gelding Valiant King ranked 76th among the candidates.
Since then, Valiant King has forced his way into the field, and will start in the famous two-mile race for the second consecutive year.
Trained by Chris Waller, Valiant King earned a guaranteed berth to this year’s $6.53 million Melbourne Cup with a win at 60-1 in the Group 3 Bart Cumming Stakes at about 1 9/16 miles at Flemington on Oct. 4.
Masquerade Ball rallied between rivals in early stretch to win Sunday’s autumn running of the Grade 1 Tenno Sho at Tokyo Racecourse in Japan. It was the 3-year-old colt’s first victory in a race at the highest level and his debut against older horses.
The win may lead to a start in a Grade 1 race in Japan in coming weeks and months, with the $7.07 million Japan Cup at 1 1/2 miles at Tokyo on Nov. 30, or the $7.07 million Arima Kinen at 1 9/16 miles at Nakayama on Dec. 28 as options.
Sunday’s Tenno Sho was run at 1 1/4 miles.
