[NoChanceToDance]

Originally Posted by my miss storm cat

This horse is not on par, so I'll use him as an example.

Where were you in 2001?

This horse was having his first race.

June 22nd, Newmarket, Jamie Spencer up, a field of 11.

He won, won the next and the following 6 races was 2nd twice and 3rd twice.

Went to Hong Kong where he got a new name, raced a few times going off at 99/1, and in his first Group 1 outing beat the legendary Cape of Good Hope.

No need to go in with every minute detail BUT season after season, his rating went up, up, up.

This horse is not on par.

He defeated and dethroned his illustrious stable-mate Silent Witness (talk about shock and awe), he travelled (Tokyo in '05 where he was 4th, 5th in the Dubai Duty Free in 2006, he won the Grade 1 Yasuda Kinen in 2006 and was 3rd in the Dubai World Cup, his first time on dirt, last year).

... and through all this? Injuries and viruses.

He's nine years old now with no retirement plans in sight.

Bullish Luck is not on par.

There are quite a few like him... Group 1 horses, aging now but as game and determined as ever.

http://www.hkjc.com/english/racing/h...&Option=1#htop

It's not that I'm offended that others don't share my view... I'm not.

It's more that it strikes me as a little sad that you can have a three-time Melbourne Cup winner like Makybe Diva or a horse like Vengeance of Rain and they're still treated as if they're not equal somehow. That i don't get, never will, but that's life.

I was there when Al Moughazel made his debut at Newmarket. He wasn't capable of winning in listed company in England, and after taking a bit of time in HK, he goes and wins his first Gr1.

We won't agree, and that's fine, but that seems to tell me that the Gr1 races in HK are weaker than most of the Gr1, and maybe even Gr2 races in Britain.

You don't become a racing 'superpower' overnight, it takes time. Hong Kong have been in this game for next to no time at all. You can't expect them to rated on a par with the best in Europe and America. A few years ago, if someone would have said to me that by 2008 HK would have a few horses capable of racing in Gr races in this country I probably would have disagreed, but they certainly are capable, and give them another few years and they will be capable of not only racing in these races, but winning them, too.