Not Usual Talent finished the 2018-19 Hong Kong season with consecutive wins in handicap races at Sha Tin and Happy Valley racecourses, victories that have propelled the New Zealand-bred gelding to a more prominent role on that circuit.
Wednesday, Not Usual Talent will have his first start of the 2019-20 season in the 267,744 Green Luck Handicap at about a mile and 50 yards at Happy Valley.
Of course, the expectation was that the Group 2, $514,875 Oriental Watch Sha Tin Trophy on Sunday in Hong Kong would go off like clockwork. Beauty Generation was in the race and on the face of things the Hong Kong champion would win the Oriental Watch – because Beauty Generation never loses. But this time, the mechanism was fouled, the gears didn’t quite click, and both Rise High, who won by a neck, and Waikuku handed Beauty Generation his first loss in 10 starts dating back to April 2018.
Yes Yes Yes posted a minor upset Saturday in Austalia in the Group 1, $9.56 million Everest Stakes, holding off Santa Ana Lane to win the 1,200-meter dash by a half-length at Randwick Racecourse.
Trekking finished third, while Redzel, winner of the first two editions of the Everest, was a pace casualty and faded to eighth. The top three home all came from well back, with Yes Yes Yes and jockey Glen Boss getting first run on Santa Ana Lane, who surged in the very late stages but fell short of the winner.
Magical, a game second in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs, held off a sustained rally from Addeybb to win her fourth Group 1 stakes in Saturday’s $1.76 million Champion Stakes at Royal Ascot in England.
Fifth in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse on Oct. 6 in Paris, Magical was always prominent in the Champion Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on a soft turf course. Ridden by Donnacha O’Brien for his father, Aidan, Magical (even-money) stalked pacesetter Regal Reality (16-1) for the first mile before taking the lead in early stretch.
King of Change conquered the heavy going at Ascot and scored the biggest win of his career in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Saturday.
King of Change raced midpack under jockey Sean Levey, began a move with a quarter-mile to run, split horses a furlong-and-a-half from the finish to take command of the straight-course mile, and had plenty in the tank to hold off a run from The Revenant, one of the favorites.
Thirty-five minutes after losing a photo with Stradivarius in the British Champions Long Distance Cup, trainer John Gosden and jockey Frankie Dettori won one with Star Catcher in the British Champions Fillies and Mares.
Redzel is the only winner The Everest has known in the Australian sprint race’s two-year history and on Saturday at Royal Randwick, Redzel will try to win his third Everest when he faces 15 rivals.
The $9.56 million (US) Everest is Australia’s version of the Pegasus World Cup, with connections shelling out big bucks for a spot in this six-furlong race around a right-handed turn.
To escape the long shadow of the great Enable, Magical is traveling to a bog.
In truth, Magical is shipping this weekend from trainer Aidan O’Brien’s base in Ireland to Ascot Racecourse just west of London, but so rain-soaked is Ascot that three races on Saturday’s British Champions Day card scheduled for Ascot’s round course have been transferred to the inner course.
