HK FEB 27 - CHADWICK LANDS HIS FIRST GROUP 1

By Hong Kong Jockey Club | Sunday, February 27, 2011

In what many fans will have thought of as a huge boil-over in the Sha Tin spring sunshine the HKG1 Citibank Hong Kong Gold Cup, second leg of the Triple Crown, was won in emphatic fashion by the largely unconsidered California Memory, trained by Tony Cruz and ridden by Matthew Chadwick for Owner Howard Liang Yum Shing.

But Cruz was possibly the least surprised man on the course as he had planned the route for the son of Highest Honor who was not only contesting a HKG1 for the first time but stepping up to 2000m for the first time in Hong Kong.

“It was always in our plans,” said Cruz. “We believed in this horse and believed this was the distance for him as he’d run well in 2000m race in France before coming here.

“Now after this performance I think this is a serious horse and one to be looked on as the next big horse in Hong Kong.

“We’ll definitely go to the QE II (the G1 Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup) with him on 1 May and the (HKG1 Standard Chartered) Champions & Chater Cup, and some international races too.”

If Cruz was un-phased, so too was Matthew Chadwick who held the five-year-old grey gelding up at the back of the field with complete aplomb before pulling him out to mow down his rivals and win going away.

Chadwick was completing a consecutive race treble with his first ever HKG1 victory and was understandably jubilant about the result.

“It’s a great feeling,” said the 20-year-old “and hopefully there’ll be more to come. The bad draw didn’t help, but he was always travelling. I was expecting him to close off well, but really he just came home like a bullet!”

The victory was a poignant one for Owner Howard Liang as the horse had been owned in the early part of the season by his father Thomas Liang, a great supporter of racing and an extremely popular racing man.

“He loved racing and I‘m very proud to see this horse winning today” said his son.

Until California Memory appeared on the scene it had looked likely that the Sean Woods-trained King Dancer, for the ride on whom Ryan Moore had travelled from Dubai, would take the prize.

But in a finish reminiscent of the one Moore himself conjured out of Snow Fairy in the G1 Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup in December, Chadwick and California Memory swooped to deprive the partnership.

“He ran a great race,” said Moore of King Dancer. “I think the winner’s pretty good” he added, which is a solid endorsement from a man who specializes in understatement.

The John Moore pair of Mighty High and veteran Viva Pataca finished third and fourth respectively.

There was no semblance of fluke about today’s result as the winner came home in the smart time of 2.01.63 in a true run race.

In finishing the final 400m in a blistering 21.63 he even surpassed Snow Fairy whose 21.97 brought her home in front on 12 December.

California Memory was being trained for the HKG1 Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby last year before suffering a setback. Perhaps only now has been able to show his true potential over the Derby course and distance.

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