Whistle jacket
HKIR 25 justifies the hype
Ka Ying Rising alone would have taken care of that.
Voyage Bubble and Romantic Warrior also made for a brilliant day for the Hong Kong horses.
The only foreign trained winner was of course in the Hong Kong Vase where Sosie showed what a nice horse he is by winning this race to give trainer Andre Fabre his 4th winner of the race and a nice birthday present as well.
Last year's winner Giavelotto tried hard but maybe being another year older had just taken the edge off his performance and he couldn't catch the winner. Goliath was on his best behaviour and finished third with Al Riffa who got a strange ride from McMonagle where he was kept too far back in the field and his final push was too little too late and he had to settle for fourth.
So what is there left to say about Ka Ying Rising as he got his 16th consecutive win, winning the Hong Kong Sprint without breaking into a sweat. All Zac had to do was get him off the rail and the horse did the rest with consummate ease. It was an exhibition of strength and speed comined in one horse who without doubt is the best sprinter in the world.
John Size's Raging Blizzard with Brenton Avdulla on board was a great second on 113.0 and we thought Fast Network would do well and he did coming third with Lucky Sweynesse fourth.
The unfortunate runner was Khadeem as he made a move to the side as they left the gate and jockey Oisin Murphy lost an iron and then had to ride the rest of the race without stirrups.
The Hong Kong Mile was thought to be an opportunity for someone other than last year's winner to break through buy Voyage Bubble wasn't having ay of that! He ran a very solid race and at the finish was able to withhold the challenge of Soul Rush to provide the same 1-2 as last year. Size-Bowman combined with Red Lion to take third.
Then enter another superstar in Romantic Warrior and he continued on his considerable winning ways to take out the Hong Kong Cup for the fourth time which is of course a record in itself.
Bellagio Opera took second but not without earning the displeasure of the stewards when he bumped Quisisana hard and put her off her stride. His jockey Yokoyama was disqualified for a couple of weeks (we aren't sure if that applies to his rides in Japan) and he was fined HK$100,000. Christophe Soumillon on Quisisana was not amused and felt they had been done out of a higher place than third.
The HKJC is to be congratulated on another excellent program and while their three home champions reigned there was enough interest in the other runners to make for a great day of racing.
We are now counting the sleeps until the Saudi Cup when Romantic Warrior will again do battle with Forever Young!
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