SHA TIN, Hong Kong – Superstar Japanese filly Almond Eye picked a bad time to get a little sick and had to miss the Hong Kong Cup, but the Cup, anchor of the Hong Kong International race card, delivered a feverish finish in her absence.
The Japanese horse Win Bright is no Almond Eye, but Sunday at Sha Tin he was strong, brave, and a head better than Magic Wand, the world-traveling Ireland-based filly who lost little in defeat.
Brett Davis – Selections
R1 – 7-8-6-1
R2 – 5-2-4-10
R3 – 3-4-10-2
R4 – 1-2-10-7
R5 – 14-11-1-13
R6 – 9-8-2-12
R7 – 1-2-4-6
R8 – 8-6-7-1
R9 – 10-7-1-2
R10 – 5-4-7-1
Best – R9 n10 Mr Croissant
Longshot – R2 n5 Vincy
Best Play – R7 Quin 1 / 2,6
Tom Wood:
SELECTIONS:
R1: 1 – 7 – 3 – 8
R2: 6 – 10 – 8 – 14
R3: 4 – 8 – 10 – 14
R4: 2 – 1 – 10 – 13
HONG KONG – For much of the last two years, Beauty Generation’s camp had no need to hunt excuses. Now they find themselves scrambling for answers.
The questions go like this: Do consecutive losses following a 10-race winning streak that included back-to-back victories in the Hong Kong Mile and the highest international rating ever achieved by a Hong Kong horse signify the end of Beauty Generation’s dominance? Does Beauty Generation still have the psychological fire smoldering alongside physical flame to win the Group 1, $3.15 million HK Mile for the third year in a row Sunday?
HONG KONG – The Hong Kong Cup, the Group 1, $3.58 million anchor of the Hong Kong International Races on Sunday at Sha Tin Racecourse, was supposed to be the playground of superstar Japanese filly Almond Eye, who got as far as quarantine in Japan before a brief fever scrapped Hong Kong travel plans. Her absence leaves the Cup a shell of the race it might have been. Only eight horses are slated to start; none will be confused with Almond Eye.
HONG KONG – Sprinters and milers have historically ruled Hong Kong racing, and it’s mainly been European shippers winning the 1 1/2-mile Hong Kong Vase, to be run Sunday on the Hong Kong International Races program at Sha Tin.
Only twice since 2000 has a Hong Kong-based horse won the Vase, but one of those occasions came when Exultant won in 2018, and Exultant probably is a better horse now than then.
“Exultant is on the up,” trainer Tony Cruz said. “He’s rising, still improving, and this is his prime. I’ve never seen him so well.”
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 – 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.
