The Melbourne Cup was on display at Happy Valley on Wednesday night, and for a moment during the Class Five Swallow Handicap (1,650m), it seemed as though the first Tuesday in November might come before the finish of the midweek meeting’s opener.
After favourite and predicted leader Superb Move missed the start, the seven-runner Swallow Handicap field crawled through the first 450m of the race almost a full second outside standard, with Andrea Atzeni setting the pedestrian tempo aboard Hunky Dory.
Atzeni then picked things up a touch until Jerry Chau Chun-lok assumed the running aboard Millennium Falcon to inject some pace into the back half of the race.
All the while, Bowman kept his cool on $1.65 favourite Superb Move, getting the four-year-old going 400m from home and building just enough momentum to pip Douglas Whyte’s Double Show on the line.
That Bowman was there to win the race on Superb Move was no guarantee as the gates crashed back, with the jockey lucky to stay aboard as the gelding dipped at an inopportune time.
“It was nothing untoward – he just threw his head down at the wrong time, and his head was on the floor when the gates opened. All’s well that ends well,” Bowman said.
Bowman continued his lightning start to the season, completing a double aboard the Caspar Fownes-trained Lucky Gor in the first section of the Class Four Melbourne Cup Tour Handicap (1,200m) to move to 11 victories from six meetings.
Bowman maintained his three-win lead over Zac Purton in the jockeys’ premiership, with his countryman countering with successes aboard Frankie Lor Fu-chuen’s Lucky Archangel in the second section of the Class Four Honeyeater Handicap (1,200m) and the Danny Shum Chap-shing-trained Lightning Bolt in the first section of the Class Three Cuckoo Handicap (1,200m).
Caspar Fownes added yet another Valley double to his record, snaring the Class Four Magpie Handicap (1,650m) with the fast-finishing M Unicorn before the victory of Lucky Gor in the next race.
Fownes moved to seven wins for the season and sits a clear second in the trainers’ premiership behind Francis Lui Kin-wai.
Second-season handler Pierre Ng Pang-chi has also started the term strongly, and he jagged his first brace of the campaign to move to five victories.
Ng combined with Alexis Badel to land the second section of the Swallow Handicap, with Medic Elite stopping the clock more than one second quicker than Superb Move did 30 minutes earlier.
Like Fownes, Ng’s double was a running one, and it was Happy Angel providing the second leg with his strong on-pace victory under Matthew Chadwick in the Class Four Parrot Handicap (1,800m).
“We’ve made a better start than last year, and we’re hopefully going to get more and more wins,” Ng said. “We’ve had a couple of unlucky runners, and hopefully, they get wins next time. Medic Elite ran very well last season, and the way it panned out tonight was very suitable, and Happy Angel, his race also worked out well.”
Boosted by a HK$31.1 million jackpot, the Triple Trio paid a whopping HK$18,394,331. Finding Winning Data was the key to unlocking the exotic, with Ricky Yiu Poon-fai’s five-start maiden pinching second under Karis Teetan at $49 after finishing 13th at Sha Tin 10 days earlier.
The Melbourne Cup Tour’s visit to Hong Kong comes ahead of a bumper simulcast schedule out of Australia, with the Jockey Club hoping to engage punters before offering betting on Turnbull Stakes Day, The Everest Day, Caulfield Cup Day, Cox Plate Day, Victoria Derby Day and Melbourne Cup Day across the next six weeks.
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