THE COUNTDOWN IS WELL AND TRULY ON FOR THE LONGINES HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL RACES

By Darren Winningham | Sunday, December 4, 2022

It’s just a week away now!

The stage is set for a great day of racing next Sunday when the Longines International Races will take place at Sha Tin. Both the locals and the overseas trainers, jockeys, and connections have primed their horses to peak for this day ... with horses from all around the world to Hong Kong to contest the HK$110 million that is on offer for the feature races.

The feature races are:

The LONGINES Hong Kong Vase – race 4 of the program (HK$22 million prize money)
The LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint – race 5 (HK$24 million prize money)
The LONGINES Hong Kong Mile – race 7 (HK$30 million prize money)
The LONGINES Hong Kong Cup – race 8 (HK$34 million prize money)

All four races are listed at Group 1 level. With so much glory and prize money on offer there will be some competitive racing.

The international contingent is coming from all over the world this year – Australia, USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore and of course, the most successful raiders in recent years, Japan.

Aidan O’Brien is no stranger to the LONGINES Hong Kong International Racing carnival and has a wonderful chance in the LONGINES Hong Kong Vase over 2400 metres with his runner Stone Age – a three-year-old. He seems to target this race successfully with his young runners who are showing some progression. He has won this race three times in the past seven years – his other three-year-old runners who have won are Highland Reel (2015) and Mogul (2020) and Highland Reel (2017) won the race again as a five-year-old.

The LONGINES Hong Kong Vase has held some wonderful and emotional victories for the Japanese trained runners, who have dominated the race in recent years. Winning with Glory Vase in 2019 and 2021. Their other winner was in 2016 with Satono Crown. The unique feature of all these wins is that Joao Moreira is in the saddle on all occasions.

The LONGINES Hong Kong Cup is where the Japanese have nearly proved unbeatable winning the race five times in the past seven years. Their dominance commenced in 2015 with A Shin Hikari saluting. In 2016 Maurice won. Since 2019 the Japanese have proven unbeatable in this race winning with Win Bright (2019), Normcore (2020) and, just last year, with Loves Only You.

The LONGINES Hong Kong Mile is a race that the Japanese have struggled with but, when you consider they have taken on some absolute champions of Hong Kong racing history on their home turf, the record is not all that bad. When racing against the likes of Beauty Generation (the 2017 & 2018 winner) and then the new sensation of Hong Kong – Golden Sixty (the winner in 2020 & 2021). Golden Sixty could become be the first runner in the history of the race to post three consecutive victories! The sole Japanese winner recently was Admire Mars in 2019.

The least success for the Japanese runners has been the LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint where they have had one win in the past eight years with Danon Smash in 2020. The followed the superstar of Japanese sprinters Lord Kanaloa winning the race in consecutive years in 2012 and 2013.

Finally, I suppose I must mention the German runner in 2022 – Mendocino trained by Sarah Steinberg and who will be ridden by her partner Rene Piechulek in the LONGINES Hong Kong Vase.

There has never been a German runner win on LONGINES Hong Kong International race day – will the history books be rewritten in 2022?

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