AIDAN O'BRIEN BRINGS LUXUMBERG BACK TO HK LOOKING TO GO ONE BETTER THAN LAST YEAR

By Darren Winningham | Sunday, December 8, 2024

Aidan O’Brien has launched another assault on the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) in 2024 bringing four runners to Sha Tin.

It has been well documented in the lead up to the HK$24 million Hong Kong Vase that this will be Luxembourg’s final start in a race prior to heading to stud with Coolmore.

Go back twelve months to the LONGINES Hong Kong Cup when Luxembourg took on the Hong Kong champion Romantic Warrior. He was sensational in defeat (by a nose) with the two horses going stride for stride as the winning post loomed. In 2023 O’Brien was confident telling me prior to the race “we are not here to run second”.

“We felt last year we ran him in the wrong race. He just got beat and it looked like a mile and a half would have suited him better,” said O’Brien, reflecting in that result twelve months later.

“Obviously, he was very unlucky to meet a special horse [Romantic Warrior].”

This year the stallion steps up to 2400 metres – a little further than last year.

Will he run out the distance? That is the question on everyone’s lips. He won the Group 1 Coronation Cup over the distance back in May this year, but since then has seemingly been struggling to get back to that form.

O’Brien explained, “His was a very good run in the Breeders’ Cup last time – probably better than what anyone else thinks. We thought a mile and a half would suit him, so we find out now whether we did the right thing last year or not.”

O’Brien has an immaculate record in the HKIR Vase, training three previous winners of the race – Highland Reel (2015 & 2017) then winning the race in 2020 with Mogul. This record was equalled by French trainer Andre Fabre.

Ryan Moore has ridden all three of Aiden O’Brien’s previous winners.

O’Brien’s other runner in the Vase is Continuous who posted a win over 2000 metres in the Group 3 Royal Whip in Ireland in August. Wayne Lordan will ride.

O’Brien’s two other runners are Content and Wingspan who will take on the hot pot Romantic Warrior in the HK$40 million LONGINES Hong Kong Cup.

Content and Wingspan are aiming to become the first three-year-old fillies to win the Hong Kong Cup since Snow Fairy in 2010. Ed Dunlop trained Snow Fairy and Ryan Moore rode her on that occasion.

O’Brien paid tribute to the LONGINES HKIR saying, “This is a very special meeting. I don’t think this time of the year anyone would want to be anywhere else. I think it’s exciting for racing all over the world that we can bring these horses together and we can get a handle on where the best horses are and who’s the best.”

His philosophic view is shared by the promotional strategic branding of the LONGINES HKIR by the 140-year-old Hong Kong Jockey Club … “Where the World’s best meet”.

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