By Declan Schuster

Francis Lui went a long way to boosting his trainers’ championship defence with a four-timer at Sha Tin on Sunday (8 December) and the affable horseman takes a team of three to Happy Valley on Wednesday night (11 December) as he aims to keep the ball rolling.

Lui’s quartet sees him reach 16 wins from 144 runners across 27 of the 88 scheduled race meetings this term, with only five handlers currently ahead of him: Pierre Ng (23 wins), David Hayes (20), Mark Newnham (20), Danny Shum (19) and Caspar Fownes (18).

Happy Valley Selections
(Wednesday, December 11, 2024)

Race 1: #6 Fury And Gold, #2 Palace Pal, #7 Golden Fairy, #4 Super Hong Kong
Race 2: #2 Modest Gentleman, #10 Plentiful, #7 Country Dancer, #1 Dan Attack
Race 3: #6 Telecom Dragon, #4 Beauty Light, #10 Spicy So Smart, #2 Thriving Brothers
Race 4: #10 Sight Happy, #3 Fatal Blow, #2 Bits Superstar, #8 Affirm
Race 5: #2 Escape Route, #12 Kingly Demeanor, #9 Me Time, #8 Flying Silver
Race 6: #2 Sturdy Ruby, #6 Take Action, #10 Firefoot, #8 Ninja Derby

Arma Veloce, second by a nose to males in her stakes debut in August, scored a minor upset in Sunday’s Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies at Kyoto Racecourse in Japan, securing the country’s 2-year-old filly championship.

Arma Veloce paid $25.90 in American pools. May Day Ready, second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1, could finish only 13th in a field of 18, losing by 8 1/2 lengths.

No one could come close to spoiling Romantic Warrior’s coronation as the first three-time winner of the Hong Kong Cup, as Hong Kong’s best horse – one of the best in the world – coasted to an easy 1 1/2-length victory over the high-class Japanese filly Liberty Island on Sunday at packed Sha Tin Racecourse.

By Daryl Timms

Ka Ying Rising continued a meteoric rise to clinch the biggest win of his career with victory in the HK$26 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) at Sha Tin on Sunday (8 December).

Overcoming difficulties at the start and pressure throughout, the gelding responded courageously for Zac Purton and David Hayes to record his eighth successive victory.

By Declan Schuster

Voyage Bubble sealed his status as Hong Kong’s premier miler with a spirited victory in this afternoon’s (Sunday, 8 December) HK$36 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin under James McDonald for trainer Ricky Yiu.

By Tom Peacock

In the end, history was achieved in the most impressive way imaginable.

Romantic Warrior became the first horse to win the HK$40 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m) three times in a manner befitting his status as his homeland’s pre-eminent equine ambassador.

So easily did the six-year-old defy an array of international competition, in fact, that jockey James McDonald was able to stand up in his irons and salute the packed Sha Tin grandstands as he passed the line a length and a half clear of Japan’s Liberty Island.

By Scott Burton

Giavellotto produced an irresistible surge up the Sha Tin straight to stamp his authority on the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m) under Oisin Murphy at Sha Tin on Sunday (8 December), ending a 12-year drought for British-based trainers at this meeting, dating back to the Ed Dunlop-trained Red Cadeaux in 2012.

May Day Ready, second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1, has a tough outside post in her attempt to make history as the first foreign-based winner of the Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies on turf at Kyoto Racecourse in Japan on Sunday.

Trained by Joseph Lee, May Day Ready drew post 17 in a field of 18 and will be ridden by Frankie Dettori, who knows the filly well. Dettori rode May Day Ready to wins in her first three starts, including the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 4.

It has been the HK$24 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m) that has proved the most fruitful opportunity at Sha Tin so far for Aidan O’Brien, who hopes the switch to a race he has won three times before will be an aid to the popular Luxembourg.

The five-year-old son of Camelot joins Coolmore Stud’s stallion ranks in 2025 so this will be a last hurrah in an exemplary career which has seen him claim a Group 1 in each season he has been in training.