World’s elite focusing on CXHKIR 2007
17 Oct 2007
Hong Kong Jockey Club
The countdown to the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races has begun.
At the close of first nominations for the December 9 spectacular at Sha Tin, the Hong Kong Jockey Club received 287 first nominations, including 69 individual Gr.1 winners and nearly half of the active turf horses in the current World’s Top 50.
The global diversity of those entered for the four Gr.1 races worth HK$62m (US$8.1m) has never been more pronounced - 17 countries and regions are represented with Gr.1 winners from 13 racing jurisdictions.
“The entries for this year's Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races are exceptional and illustrate how the meeting has matured into the Turf World Championships. We have developed a Grand Slam fixture in the international racing calendar, one that clearly features the world’s leading owners, trainers, jockeys and horses as a championship event,” said Mr William A. Nader, Executive Director of Racing at the HKJC.
Featured nominations for CXHKIR 2007
Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint (HK$12m - US$1.6m - Gr.1 – 1200m)
Last year’s increase of the Sprint's distance to 1200m from 1000m has attracted stronger international entries with an increase of Gr.1 winners evident. While the challenging situation of equine influenza in parts of Australia poses a potential barrier to participation, the Club is working very closely with the relevant authorities to enable stars the quality of Miss Andretti, champion-elect of this year’s Global Sprint Challenge and four-time Gr.1 heroine, to take their rightful place.
The CXHK Sprint has identified the world’s top-ranked sprinter for three of the past four seasons and Absolute Champion bids for back-to-back victories in a race that Hong Kong has dominated since 2002. The home team is bolstered further by the very exciting Medic Power and Sacred Kingdom.
Also entered are the Gr.1 winners Apache Cat, Red Clubs, Benbaun (Prix de l’Abbaye), Marchand D’Or, Aston Machan (Sprinters Stakes) and Kelly’s Landing (Dubai Golden Shaheen).
Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Vase (HK$14m - US$1.8m - Gr.1 – 2400m)
A race that has been dominated by European horses in recent years, but this could change in 2007 given the international variety and quality of the nominations. Breeders’ Cup Turf winners Red Rocks from Britain and the American Better Talk Now front the nominations in company with Delta Blues, the Melbourne Cup hero from Japan, the current Caulfield Cup favourite Maldivian and Laverock from the UAE.
Some of the other notable Vase contenders include Quijano, the Grosser Preis von Baden winner; English Channel, one of the best American turf performers of recent times with five Gr.1 victories to his name; the French-trained Doctor Dino, triumphant in a Gr.1 in New York last month; and Sky Conqueror, who in May added the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (Gr.1) to his haul of multiple Group wins in his native Canada.
Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile (HK$16m - US$2.1m– Gr.1 – 1600m)
Close attention should be paid to the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Mile on Saturday week as the winner of that race will collect a US$1 million bonus if successful in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile, already the world’s richest turf event over 1600m.
Excellent Art, trained by Aidan O’Brien to win the St James’s Palace Stakes, is a possibility for the multi-million double, as are the American Gr.1 performers After Market and Kip Deville.
The best European mile form is also present through the French filly Darjina, winner of three Gr.1 races this season. Australian mare Divine Madonna is another on a hat trick of top-level successes at a mile, but topping the lot is the brilliant Seachange, a five-time Gr.1 champion in New Zealand.
The Duke, winner and twice placed in this event, will try to maintain this redoubtable race record and he could be opposed by Able One, the Champions Mile winner last term.
Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup (HK$20m - US$2.6m - Gr.1 – 2000m)
Initial entries for the most valuable turf event in the world over 2000m read like a who’s who of the turf, led by Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe hero, Dylan Thomas, a six-time Gr.1 winner, including consecutive Irish Champion Stakes at this distance. Dylan Thomas is also nominated for the Vase and stable companion and four-time Gr.1 winner George Washington is doubly entered for the Cup and Mile.
Admire Moon, runner-up last year, is on course to renew rivalries with Hong Kong’s highest-ranked duo of Audemars Piguet QEII Cup king Viva Pataca and Vengeance Of Rain, the reigning Horse of the Year and successful in this race in 2005.
Godolphin have nominated the Cup as first preference for Ramonti, third in the Mile last year and a triple Gr.1 winner in Britain since; Artiste Royal (Clement L Hirsch Memorial) and Satwa Queen (Prix de l’Opera) both captured Gr.1 prizes on either side of the Atlantic two weekends ago and are also in the reckoning alongside the exceptional victor of five Gr.1 events, Miss Finland, striving to present David Hayes with his first winner in Hong Kong since returning to train in Australia.