There are still four meetings to go in the 2022-23 Hong Kong racing season and plenty to unfold in the way of milestones and records, but with the term’s Group racing done and dusted, we take a look at who came to the fore in the city’s biggest races.
Trio of jockeys dominate Group Ones
Zac Purton has dominated just about every riding metric this season, but his decision to partner California Spangle over Lucky Sweynesse in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup means he had to share the Group One spoils with James McDonald and Vincent Ho Chak-yiu at three elite-level wins apiece.
Purton’s Group One wins came aboard California Spangle in the Hong Kong Mile and Lucky Sweynesse in the Centenary Sprint Cup and Chairman’s Sprint Prize.
McDonald’s Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup victory was sandwiched between his Hong Kong Cup and QE II Cup successes with Romantic Warrior, while Ho enjoyed wins in the Stewards’ Cup, Gold Cup and Champions Mile in tandem with the unrivalled talent that is Golden Sixty.
The season’s other elite-level races were shared between Ryan Moore (Wellington, Hong Kong Sprint), Damian Lane (Win Marilyn, Hong Kong Vase) and Hugh Bowman (Russian Emperor, Champions & Chater Cup), meaning five of the 12 major features went to international jockeys on hit-and-run missions.
Purton had a clear upper hand across all of the city’s Group races, however, winning a phenomenal 14 of 31.
Local trainers have their way
Manfred Man Ka-leung had never even won a Group One race before this season, but thanks to Lucky Sweynesse, he was the premier feature-race trainer in 2022-23.
Lucky Sweynesse’s Centenary Sprint Cup-Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup-Chairman’s Sprint Prize hat-trick saw Man share top-level honours with Francis Lui Kin-wai, while the speedster’s seven Group wins overall saw his trainer stand alone in the feature-race stakes.
Lui’s three Group One wins came thanks to Golden Sixty’s Stewards’ Cup, Gold Cup and Champions Mile successes, while Danny Shum Chap-shing’s Hong Kong Cup-QE II Cup double with Romantic Warrior saw home-grown trainers take out eight of the 12 elite-level contests.
Sixty keeps on, Sweynesse arrives
Golden Sixty’s third consecutive Group One-winning season saw him break all sorts of records, with the seven-year-old’s nine career top-line victories a Hong Kong peak.
Lucky Sweynesse became the first horse since the great Silent Witness to sweep the Hong Kong Speed Series with his three Group One wins, while Romantic Warrior was the other galloper with multiple successes against the best.
Wellington and Russian Emperor added to their Group One CVs, while California Spangle broke through at the top level, and Japan’s Win Marilyn was the only overseas raider to head home with Hong Kong riches.
Shorties the order of the day
Remarkably, not a single Hong Kong Group race during the 2022-23 season was won by a horse at double-figure odds.
California Spangle was the shortest-priced winner of the lot in the campaign’s very first Group race, winning the Group Three Celebration Cup on September 25 at $1.1.
Lucky Sweynesse was the shortest-priced Group One winner – taking out the Chairman’s Sprint Prize at $1.2 – while the longest-priced elite-level victory came in the final Group One of the season, with Russian Emperor rolling Romantic Warrior in the Champions & Chater Cup at a quote of $9.35.
Five of the 12 Group Ones were won by odds-on pops and eight by gallopers priced $2.6 or less, while a further nine Group contests went to runners $1.6 or shorter.
The four-year-old series was a different story, however, with Ricky Yiu Poon-fai’s Voyage Bubble winning the Classic Mile at $11 and the Hong Kong Derby at $46, with the Classic Cup victory of Chris So Wai-yin’s $3.4 favourite, Super Sunny Sing, in between.
Emperor rules abroad
It wasn’t only on home soil that Hong Kong horses competed at the top level, and while Wellington’s recent 10th at Royal Ascot wasn’t the ideal way to finish, there were some stronger performances earlier in proceedings.
Russian Emperor’s win in the Qatar Group One H.H The Amir Trophy was the highlight, while the performances of second-string speedsters Sight Success (fourth) and Duke Wai (fifth) in the Group One Al Quoz Sprint on Dubai World Cup night were admirable.
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