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The races have been devastated by some high profile pullouts, including Red Jazz in the Mile, and Victoire Pisa and Cape Blanco in the Cup.
The Mile will be run in about an hour, with Royal Bench (an unlucky 4th in the Duty Free), Presvis, and Musir due to run. The pace looks to be on the slow side which makes the local horses Lucky Nine and Able One the ones to beat for mine. Able One is generally considered a bit better than Beauty Flash, who is also coming back from Dubai (where he didn’t stay the 9f) which tends to throw HK horses off form.
Presvis the danger if he gets a clear run.HK seems to be reaching a golden age in terms of local middle-distance horses so they will be hard to beat in the QEII, run next week. California Memory won the most recent 10f G1 in HK in devastating fashion. On sectionals he matched Snow Fairy’s HK Cup win. Ambitious Dragon looks the best Derby winner since Viva Pataca.
Overseas horses are Wigmore Hall, River Jetez, and Gitano Hernando. The first two ran 3rd and 2nd respectively in the Duty Free, with Wigmore Hall being quite unlucky.Xtension wins by a half from Lucky Nine, with a head back to Musir.
They crawled up front, a local horse who was scratched a few days ago would have injected more pace into the race and been a real chance himself but it was not to be.Xtension and Musir sat midfield and Australia’s best jock Darren Beadman gave Xtension a textbook ride. Presvis stormed home to finish on the heels of the 2nd and 3rd, huge run in defeat. Royal Bench couldn’t get a clear run.
Soumillon lost his whip in the straight but Xtension powered past Musir regardless. Able One ran poorly, maybe due to his age or his rushed prep. Lucky Nine was 3 wide the trip which may have cost him the win.
Xtension doesn’t look to be a star which perhaps cheapens the result a bit. Looks a soft Group 1 from the point that the classier horses were backmarkers who couldn’t threaten.
Sectionals are out and Xtension actually did rattle home very nicely. Ascot may be on the cards according to the trainer.
Extension is a nice horse with some very decent form. A Group 1 win is deserved and certainly doesn’t devalue the race in my opinion.
Just went over the sectionals. Quite a few horses matched Xtension for a finishing burst which again makes me question the form a bit, but HK seems to have a surprising wealth of G1 talent at the mile distance right now.
But the territory still lacks a superstar miler (I rate Xtension near enough last year’s Fellowship, who was demolished by Good Ba Ba, Egyptian Ra, and held by Able One). If Lucky Nine and others improve next year that may very well change of course, and there are a few serious horses rocketing through the handicaps right now.
The trainer only gives Xtension a place chance if he goes for the Queen Anne and I agree. I don’t know who’s entered, but Canford Cliffs and Goldikova have him covered, and the likes of Dick Turpin will as well, but there shouldn’t be a 4 length margin this time.
QE II set to run in a few hours. HK Derby winner Ambitious Dragon is favorite, but I have trouble rating him above 2nd favorite California Memory to be honest.
Sacred Kingdom somehow got beat in the co-feature. Far and away the best horse in the G2 field, but the jockey made a huge error that will have many calling for his head. He chose to go between horses from a 2 wide trail instead of shifting that little bit more 3 wide into clear running.
Huge run in defeat (he didn’t get clear until a furlong out). Hard to know whether or not the blinkers did the job; the problem has been that his runs have flattened out, we know he can still accelerate. So since he only let down for a furlong we don’t really know for sure…
Still, looking forward to Singapore.Hong Kong to the fore in the QEII Cup, and looks like the territory has two very very smart middle-distance horses.
The HK Derby winner and favorite Ambitious Dragon got a perfect ride from champion jockey Douglas Whyte to burst through and win clearly. California Memory stormed home from last along the rail, actually making a bit of ground in the straight on the winner. Mighty High sat outside the lead and just held on for 3rd from Irian (2nd to Snow Fairy in the HK Cup) who had to settle too far back from the draw. Viva Pataca a brave and close 5th.
River Jetez was in a bad mood and wouldn’t settle in the run. Wigmore Hall ran no race… he looked like he was left flat-footed when the sprint came in but ran too poorly to be true.Pace was only even, but not an absolute dawdle either.
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