Iowa-Bred Looking For 'Glory' In Longines Hong Kong Mile

It takes a pretty serious animal to earn $2 million in any racing jurisdiction, let alone accomplishing that feat in a place like Hong Kong. The urban environment is not for every horse–to that end, the Hong Kong Jockey Club operates their state-of-the-art satellite facility in Conghua [shung-pha] on the Chinese mainland–and it takes a special horse to thrive there.

Chancheng Glory (Mor Spirit) has done just that over the course of the last 18 months or so. Bred in Iowa by Allen Poindexter, the 4-year-old gelding has won seven times from 20 starts, and while he has yet to nick a stakes victory, he has placed no fewer than four times at the Group 2 and Group 3 level and went within a zop of winning the Hong Kong Classic Cup, the second leg of the 4-year-old Triple Crown, this past February. His earnings to date total better than $1.9 million.

Bred on a $5,000 stud fee to the GI Met Mile-winning son of Eskendereya–now based in Indiana–Chancheng Glory was offered three times at public auction before being acquired privately by the Chancheng Racing Syndicate after falling just shy of his reserve at OBS March in 2022.

Those that had a hand in his upbringing speak of him in glowing terms, and each is looking forward to watching him take on horses from England, France, Japan and Australia in Sunday's G1 Longines Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin Racecourse.

“We took him to the sale as a baby and he was just a freaking angel,” said Tim Hamlin, who consigned Chancheng Glory with his wife Nancy to the 2020 Keeneland November Sale under their Wynnstay banner. “He never give us one ounce of grief ever.

“And he was beautiful,” Tim Hamlin continued. “Correct, he just was an ideal foal, you know? He never had leg problems, feet problems. He was never sick. He never was treated for anything. He just was straight-forward. And those are the best ones. And her mother [second dam Scammer] was the first mare that Nancy and I bought, when we moved to Lexington, she was our first thoroughbred mare purchase. And then Allen, he loved [Chancheng Glory's dam Solid Scam] as a yearling.”

Chancheng Glory was sold to an entity called High Spirit for $50,000 at the November Sale, a price deemed more than satisfactory by the Hamlins.

“Oh, he was perfect at the sale,” Tim Hamlin said. “He just never turned a hair, the whole time we had him. We were very happy at the time for the $50,000. That colt was just, when you looked at him, he just always looked smart, always looked athletic. He always had good hair and he was always healthy-looking. So I think it doesn't surprise me that he's a useful horse. And the people that bought him at the yearling sales, they're very good horsemen. Very good horsemen. And we were tickled that he got a good home because one of the bad things about selling babies is you don't always get to control where they go for the next year. Or the yearlings for that matter. But babies, they've got to go through two sets of hands.”

Chancheng Glory | HKJC

Chancheng Glory was part of the Hunter Valley Farm draft at Keeneland September in 2021, and the outfit's Adrian Regan said he just continued to improve with time.

“He was a bay horse with markings and everything, good physical,” said Regan. “He was always one of our favorites in prep that year. But in his prep, he was always a lovely individual, great to deal with. He's the kind of horse that you can never really forget about. That's how good he was as a physical.”

Regan added, “He was a really, really good horse at the end of the shank. He was tall. He had good action. He was just a very nice horse, great temperament.”

Chancheng Glory more than doubled his purchase price when hammering to Covington Farm for $110,000 at KEESEP.

“We were very happy because, listen, I'm not being greedy about it because I know he didn't pass all the vets he had out here,” Regan said. “He's a horse that's gone on to race, he's barely had any time away from training and it takes a really good horse to do that.”

The colt was subsequently turned over to 2-year-old consignor Al Pike, who began preparing him for the under-tack sales in early 2022. He and owner Don Maddax chose the OBS March Sale, and they could not have been more pleased with the way their youngster had progressed into the auction.

“I was in Louisiana at the time, and we loved him,” Pike said. “He's a great big two-turn looking sort of horse, he had a lot of size, a lot of scope. But he's beautiful and very athletic, very smart. Never gave us any trouble.

“When we did start knuckling down on him, he showed a lot of talent,” Pike said. “So we went down there with a lot of anticipation that he'd do well, and he lived up to our expectations. He worked in :10 flat, galloped out like he'd run two turns.”

Somewhat surprisingly, bidding stalled out at $220,000 when he went under the hammer on day one of the two-day sale.

“We were shocked we didn't even get him done.” Pike said, “but I encouraged Mr. Maddox, 'You don't have to give this horse away. I think he's a good one.' And actually, he sent him to Albert Davis out there to keep him going and get him ready for the races. And somebody came along and bought him.

“But like I said, we loved the horse. He didn't disappoint us. He did his job every day we had him. He was a really nice horse.”

It comes as no shock to Pike that Chancheng Glory has shown off his talent at the races.

“We thought he was an athlete,” he said. “Didn't know what surface he'd end up on. He was good on the dirt when I had him. He performed well on the [synthetic] there at OBS. He's just showing who he is.”

Like his fellow consignors, Pike will certainly be watching with interest this weekend.

“It's just, you get a little bit of pride of ownership,” he said. “And I didn't own a hair on him, but just had him and loved him every day we had him. And just to see him go on and do well, it's very satisfying, I got to tell you.”

Editor's Note: The Chancheng Racing Syndicate also campaigned Chancheng Prince (Carpe Diem), a $150,000 purchase out of the Top Line Sales consignment at the 2019 OBS April Sale who compiled a record of 7-7-5 from 44 starts for earnings of better than $1.4 million in Hong Kong for Chancheng Glory's trainer Francis Lui.

Karis “Mauritian Magician” Teetan on Chancheng Glory – “The Pride of Iowa,” and his chances this weekend at Sha Tin. 👀 @HKRacingUS @TheBrownAndrew pic.twitter.com/TPAnSzdPeb

— HPIbet (@HPIbet) December 5, 2024