HK DEC 4: AUSSIE PAIR AIMING FOR HONG KONG GLORY

By Hong Kong Jockey Club | Friday, December 4, 2015

Australia’s Sydney based LONGINES Hong Kong International Races contenders Lucia Valentina and Preferment, who arrived safely at Sha Tin in the early hours of Tuesday morning, will be the first Hong Kong runners for their respective trainers Kris Lees and Chris Waller.

However neither is unaccustomed to international racing travel and both men are looking forward to the 13 December challenge.

Lees brought two horses, on behalf of his late father Max, to Hong Kong in the 1990’s while Waller’s overseas adventures include an agonising second - with Brazen Beau who raced solo on the stands side - in this year’s Diamond Jubilee Stakes at the Royal Ascot meeting in June.

Lees, who accompanied Potential Star (8th -1996 Queen Elizabeth Cup) and Corporate James (9th - 1998 Hong Kong International Cup) on his previous working visit, said that his mare Lucia Valentina generally coped well with travel and it was no different on this journey.

“She’s pretty well seasoned in terms of domestic travel and nothing too much bothers her,” he said of his Hong Kong Cup entrant. “She drank up on the plane, stayed well hydrated and arrived there looking quite well. She had a good, solid gallop on the track before she left last Saturday and she can have a few easy days to settle in. She doesn’t take a lot of work.

“I’m under no illusions about the task she faces. She’s up against some of the world’s best horses and it certainly looks a tough race but this is her pet distance and I think she can be competitive.”

Lees, an eight-time Group 1 winner from his small operation at Hamilton South which is 160 kilometres north of Sydney, arrives in Hong Kong on Monday. In the meantime the mare is being supervised by stable foreman Malcom Ollerton who regularly rides her in her work.

“It’s a great honour to be invited to such a prestigious meeting, and I'm really looking forward to it,” Lees said. Damien Oliver will ride Lucia Valentina, who joins the David Hayes-trained Criterion - who was third last year - to give Australia two runners in the Cup.

Waller, the Sydney based New Zealand born trainer who has been the dominant player in Australia’s training ranks since 2010, said that LONGINES Hong Kong Vase nominee Preferment was “well placed” in the Hong Kong 2400m feature.

Waller, whose first Group 1 winner was Triple Honour in the 2008 Doncaster Handicap, has already claimed 10 Group 1 wins in the first four months of this Australian racing season; following tallies of 14, 8 and 9 in the three previous racing years, and now targets international success.

He believes Preferment, a luckless runner in the 3 November Melbourne Cup at his latest appearance, is ready for his Vase assignment after an exhibition gallop between races at Rosehill last Saturday. “We just wanted him to have a good stretch of his legs on a race day because he’ll have had a fair break between runs by the time Sha Tin comes around.

“He’s held his condition and probably one more serious gallop after he’s settled in Hong Kong should have him right. The 2400 metres of the Vase suits him and of all the good races on the horizon, I think this is the most suitable option for him,” he said.

Also arrived from Australia is the French trained, Australian owned Gailo Chop who contests the LONGINES Hong Kong Cup after winning the G1 Mackinnon Stakes at the same distance at Flemington in October.

Managing owner Terry Henderson said: “The horse is very well. He’s loved it in Australia. He worked very well last Saturday, he’s very fresh and he looks great. We’re very happy with where he is at the moment. Hopefully he can make his presence felt in Hong Kong and we’re delighted that Christophe Soumillon, who’s won on the horse in France, will come to ride him.”