Sha Tin

Entering Sunday's G1 Centenary Sprint Cup at Sha Tin, the likeable Hot King Prawn (Aus) (Denman {Aus}) had won half of his 22 career starts and had been out of the top three on just four occasions. His record at Group 1 level left more to be desired, as he had been blanked from seven previous tries, but the John Size trainee righted that wrong with a convincing success Sunday. Drawn gate two for Joao Moreira, Hot King Prawn was driven along early and found himself in the perfect spot...

Golden Sixty (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro) had to channel his inner Usain Bolt in Sunday's G1 Stewards' Cup at Sha Tin, as the 5-year-old sprinted his final half-mile in a mind-boggling :44.18 and final 400 metres in a staggering :21.80 to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. His record now stands at 16 starts for 15 wins and his 12th consecutive score draws him ever closer to the local record of 17 straight held by the legendary Silent Witness (Aus). Very little went according to script. With Zac Purton steering,...

Ten years on from his lone success in the Hong Kong Classic Mile with Lucky Nine (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), trainer Caspar Fownes starts two of the three top-rated gallopers in the first of the three legs of the 4YO Classic Series at Sha Tin Sunday afternoon. Enrich Delight (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro) will try to give his sire back-to-back winners of the Classic Mile, following on the success of Golden Sixty (Aus) last year, and has done little wrong in two Class 2 appearances over 1400 metres. A maiden winner and...

Exiting an imperious victory in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Mile Dec. 13, Golden Sixty (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro) goes in search of his 12th consecutive victory and 15th from 16 starts overall when he takes on a field of mostly familiar faces in Sunday's G1 Stewards' Cup at Sha Tin Racecourse. Winner of seven straight during the 2019/2020 season, including a sweep of the 4-year-old Classics, the Queensland-bred gelding has yet to be tested in four runs this term and his Hong Kong Mile success came at the expense of...

Elusive State (Aus) (All American {Aus}) missed a crack at Dubai World Cup night in 2020 when the meeting was canceled at the 11th hour, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the 7-year-old could take his chance this year following a victory in a rare Class 1 handicap over the Sha Tin all-weather track Sunday afternoon. Slow to start, Elusive State raced in a share of last into and around the first turn, but was asked to improve by Joao Moreira at the 1100-meter mark and by the end of...

Hong Kong champion jockey Joao 'Magic Man' Moreira became only the third jockey in Hong Kong history to ride 1,000 winners on the island. The Brazilian was successful aboard Incanto Prepared (NZ) (Per Incanto) in the Class 4 Uranus H. over 1650 metres at Happy Valley on Wednesday. He joins 13-time champion Douglas Whyte (1813) and fellow champion Zac Purton (1209) in this elite millennial club. "I can only describe it as a dream come true because I never dreamed that, to be honest, and I would never think that...

Beauty Generation (NZ) (Road to Rock {Aus}--Stylish Bel {Aus}, by Bel Esprit {Aus}), a two-time Hong Kong Horse of the Year and only horse to surpass the HK$100 mark in career earnings, has been retired after his fifth in Sunday's G1 Longines Hong Kong Mile. He will live out his days at Living Legends in Victoria, Australia, alongside other Hong Kong retirees Silent Witness (Aus), Mr Stunning (Aus) and California Memory, among others. Bred by Nearco Stud Ltd., Beauty Generation was purchased for NZ$60,000 by Kylie Bax's Hermes Syndications from...

by Alan Carasso Hong Kong was in the throes of massive social unrest at the time of the 2019 Longines Hong Kong International Races, protests had taken place at the Chinese University of Hong Kong literally steps away from Sha Tin Racecourse, and the city bore the scars of the same. The tension was palpable, yet the Hong Kong Jockey Club staged a successful renewal of the races, so successful, in fact, that record turnover of HK$1.71 billion was realised. Only weeks after, Hong Kong was enveloped in the global...

Jerome Reynier may lack the name recognition and firepower enjoyed by his fellow Frenchmen like Arc-winner Jean-Claude Rouget, the legendary Andre Fabre and rising star Francis-Henri Graffard. But the 35-year-old, based in Marseille in the southeast of France, can boast of sharing a spot with that esteemed company on the French trainers' premiership by earnings (north of €2 million in France alone, good for ninth place) and by number of winners (81, sixth most). Reynier can close what by any metric has been an outstanding season this weekend in Hong...

History tells us that when one darling of the Hong Kong turf fades into the sunlight, almost invariably--though not to be taken for granted--another one appears. Fairy King Prawn (Aus) was the marquee Hong Kong galloper at the turn of the century and it wasn't long after that Silent Witness (Aus) took the jurisdiction by storm, embarking on a 17-race winning streak that included back-to-back runnings of the G1 Hong Kong Sprint in 2003-2004. A Derby win often paves the path to Hong Kong super-stardom, and such was the case...

Having broken into the racecalling business nearly a quarter-century ago, Mark McNamara has worked his way up from describing the action at Moruya in southeastern New South Wales in Australia to becoming one of the primary voices of New Zealand racing from 2009 to 2019. McNamara, now in his early 40s, returned for a short time to Australia, but the job of chief commentator for the Hong Kong Jockey Club came open in late 2019 when Brett Davis announced that he would be returning to Adelaide to take a similar...

A total of 39 horses representing Hong Kong, Japan, Ireland and France were entered and barriers drawn Thursday morning for Sunday's HK$95 million Longines Hong Kong International Races meeting at Sha Tin Racecourse. Although Boniface Ho's Classique Legend (Aus) (Not A Single Doubt {Aus}) has yet to win a race at Group 1 level--he is a multiple Group 2 winner in Australia--he is one of the marquee horses of this year's HKIR, having arrived in Hong Kong on the back of a dominating victory in the A$15-million The Everest at...