HONG KONG –Highland Reel arrived in Hong Kong during December 2016 draped in a cloak of travel clichés: “frequent-flyer miles,” “globetrotter,” “iron horse.”

Highland Reel had started his season shipping from Ireland to Dubai, went on to Hong Kong for a race in April, returned home for a summer European campaign, won the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita, and then, after stopping off for a few weeks back home in Ireland, came back to Hong Kong – and finished second as the odds-on favorite in the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase.

HONG KONG – Mauritius-born, Hong Kong-based Karis Teetan won the International Jockeys’ Championship on Wednesday night at Happy Valley.

HONG KONG – Ryan Moore has seen enough of Bricks and Mortar. He finished second behind him in the Pegasus World Cup Turf when riding Magic Wand and was third to Bricks and Mortar aboard Hong Kong Vase hope Anthony Van Dyck in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Bricks and Mortar – retired and set for a Japanese stallion career – is sure to win an Eclipse Award as champion turf horse of 2019 and has the inside track on Horse of the Year. Some might view him as a default candidate for that award. Moore feels otherwise.

HONG KONG – Meet racing’s nomad mare, Deirdre.

Deirdre, second a year ago here in Hong Kong to Glorious Forever in the Hong Kong Cup, shipped from Japan to Dubai to finish fourth to Almond Eye in the $6 million Dubai Turf in March. She returned to Japan, finished sixth in the QEII Cup in late April – and hasn’t been home since.

HONG KONG – For the entire 2018-19 Hong Kong racing season, Beauty Generation was literally unbeatable. Eight starts, eight wins, four Group 1’s, a second straight Hong Kong Mile, and an international rating that put him near the top of the world.

R1 – 10-11-3-2
R2 – 6-7-8-9
R3 – 10-12-1-2
R4 – 11-2-4-6
R5 – 7-9-1-8
R6 – 4-2-3-8
R7 – 2-11-8-7
R8 – 10-12-6-5
R9 – 1-6-11-9

Best – R2 n6 Happy Hour
Longshot – R1 No 10 Fire And Gold
Best Play – R5 Quin 7 / 1,8,9

Tom Wood:

by Dick Powell

19 races
7 favorites won – 36.8%
12.42 average field size
$11.74 average win price

HONG KONG – Almond Eye and Beauty Generation were supposed to anchor the 2019 Hong Kong International Races, and while it’s unfair to say Sunday’s four Group 1’s at Sha Tin have been cast adrift and are sinking, the ship definitely has taken on some water.

HAPPY VALLEY SELECTIONS
(Wednesday, 4 December, 2019)

Almond Eye won’t race in the Hong Kong Cup on Dec. 8 at Sha Tin, her connections revealed Saturday.

The standout Japanese filly was set to be the star of the Hong Kong International Races, but her trip was scrapped after she developed a fever and was removed from the quarantine protocol in advance of travel this weekend. The defection is a heavy blow to the HKIR, which now will lean on the Japanese mare Deirdre and a pair of Aidan O’Brien-trained runners from Ireland, Anthony Van Dyck and Magic Wand, to carry the international banner.