By Paul Ryding
Two of the early pace-setters in the 2025/26 trainers’ championship will send strong contingents to Happy Valley on Wednesday night (8 October), looking to open up a gap at the top of the standings.
Caspar Fownes prepares six runners, hoping to improve on his seven wins so far this season at his favourite hunting ground.
Mark Newnham has made an explosive start to his third campaign in Hong Kong, and he saddles seven runners.
Barnavara, a winner of three stakes in Ireland earlier this year, won her Group 1 debut in Sunday’s $587,000 Prix de l’Opera for fillies and mares at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris in an 8-1 upset.
The Prix de l’Opera was one of five Group 1 races on the undercard of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe program that offered the winners automatic berths to Breeders’ Cup races at Del Mar on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.
There was uncertainty in the immediate aftermath of the Prix de l’Opera whether Barnavara would be sent to California for the BC Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 1.
Running through a rainstorm and under a Paris rainbow, Daryz wore down favored Minnie Hauk to win a surprisingly stirring renewal of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday at Longchamp.
Giving four pounds to the 3-year-old filly, 3-year-old Daryz got a perfect ride from first-time Arc winner Mickael Barzalona, who saved ground much of the 1 1/2-mile trip from his inside draw, got onto the back of Minnie Hauk and jockey Christophe Soumillon with 500 meters to run, and, after drafting behind her, switched outside and outkicked the filly to win by a head.
By Leo Schlink
Manfred Man soared into select company at Sha Tin on Saturday (4 October) when the veteran horseman snared his 700th win as a trainer to join an illustrious band of contemporaries with Ruby Sailing’s victory.
A former champion apprentice jockey whose most significant success in the saddle came aboard Go-Getter in the 1979 QEII Cup, Man joins John Size (1,614), Tony Cruz (1,573), Caspar Fownes (1,173), Ricky Yiu (1,068), Francis Lui (986), Danny Shum (879) and Dennis Yip (878) among the current trainers to saddle 700 winners or more in Hong Kong.
Through the late spring and summer, the 3-year-old Irish-bred filly Wemightakedthelongway was beaten in three Group 1 races in England and Ireland, finishing second once and fourth twice.
Conveniently, the winners of those races – the fillies Minnie Hauk and Whirl, both trained by Aidan O’Brien – will not pester Wemightakedlongway in her next assignment, Sunday’s Group 1 Prix de l’Opera for fillies and mares at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris.
Not long ago, 3-year-old fillies were winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe so frequently – four times between 2008 and 2017 – that people talked about changing the Arc weights to lessen the advantage conferred to that set of horses. Then they stopped winning: Enable in 2017 was the last.
By Paul Ryding
Vincent Ho will attempt to kickstart his season at Sha Tin on Saturday (4 October) with seven rides and a bit of help from some old friends among several leading chances.
Ho, who missed the bulk of last season when sidelined following a fall, has been feeling his way back into form after months of intense rehabilitation.
Discussing his rides at Saturday’s fixture, Ho highlighted The Boom Box (131lb), a three-time winner over course and distance, as a strong chance in the Class 3 Tung Lung Chau Handicap (1200m).
