WILL THE JAPANESE DOMINANCE IN THE HONG KONG VASE CONTINUE? THE BETTING SUGGESTS IT CAN

By Tim Clayton | Friday, December 8, 2023

In recent times the Japanese have dominated the LONGINES Hong Kong Vase winning three out of the last four editions of the Group 1 contest. Glory Vase did the Hong Kong Vase double for Japan, winning in 2019 and 2021 while Marilyn took the Vase honours in 2022.

This year’s race, which will be contested on Sunday at Sha Tin racecourse, has a HK$13,440,000 first prize and is no different in terms of a strong Japanese presence, with the Japanese runners making up three of the eleven runners.

Other runners come from France, Hong Kong, USA, United Arab Emirates and Ireland.

The best chance for the Japanese appears to be Lebensstil ridden by Joao ‘The Magic Man’ Moreira who returns to Hong Kong for the feature 2023 races.

Moreira has an exceptional record in the race. He has previously won the race aboard Japanese runners with the first being Satono Crown (2016) before partnering Glory Vase in 2019 and 2021. Moriera also rode him to victory in his latest win in Japan over 2200m.

Lebensstil is a rising Japanese talent with a record of three wins and three places from six starts. His latest win came in the Group 2 St. Lite Kinen restricted grade for three-year-old runners. This will be the colts first outing in Hong Kong.

As positive as it looks for Lebensstil, the challenge is that he must take on previous, proven Group 1 winners, but the Japanese are extremely confident that this rising star of Japan racing will continue the dominance of Japanese runners in this race.

The Hiroyasu Tanaka-prepared Lebensstil is Japan’s premier HKIR contender for the race being posted in all the early betting markets as the race favourite and the signs at trackwork this week have been positive.

Trainer Hiroyasu Tanaka after viewing him on Thursday morning at the Sha Tin trackwork stated: “He is improving every day “

Toshihiko Hokari, who rode Lebensstil in trackwork said: “I had a good feeling during his canter.”

The two other runners in the race representing Japan are Zeffiro and Geraldina.

Earlier in the week the fourth Japanese representative Shahryar was ruled out of the race by the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s veterinary surgeon after having suffered an injury.

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