LOCAL TRAINERS, AUSTRALIAN RIDERS DOMINATE FWD CHAMPIONS DAY AT SHA TIN

By Darren Winningham | Monday, April 29, 2024

The Hong Kong FWD Champions Day was a raging success for the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC).4

The day was appropriately branded “WHERE CHAMPIONS TRIUMPH” and, despite the inclement weather early in the day, the meeting was a stirring spectacle for all of the 33,586 people in attendance.

The day was dominated by the Hong Kong horses and trainers again. Not since 2021 as an international horse won a race on this program.

Whilst there were some upsets on the program there was the emergence of some possible stars moving forward.

In the Chairman’s Sprint Prize the David Hall trained Invincible Sage was ridden in behind the speed by Australian hoop Hugh Bowman. When it came to the business end of the race, he was able to surge away, beating the Al Quoz Sprint Group 1 winner California Spangle.

Bowman said after the victory, ´’ He is up to top class now. I think a rain-affected track may have assisted his performance, but even on a dry track I think we would have seen a winning performance today.”

The FWD Champions Mile winner was Beauty Eternal who was ridden by Zac Purton for John Size. Purton took the gelding to the lead and went to the line unchallenged.

Purton was analytical after the race saying, “there was no speed in the race, which gave us the opportunity to lead. The last thing I said to John [Size, trainer] before the race was 'I think the going is a lot better on the fence', he just got into a lovely rhythm and controlled the race.

"I thought the only chance I had to beat Golden Sixty was to try to put a gap on them and see how we went and today was his day. I always felt there was always something a bit more there, but he just always wants to do things wrong in the straight in his races and he can't let down to his full potential - and today we saw that on the rail.”

Then the feature race of the FWD QEII Cup was the grand finale to a day of Group 1 racing at Sha Tin. The winner was the new local champion Romantic Warrior ridden by James McDonald for local trainer Danny Shum.

In a dour win this Hong Kong champion got the job done. McDonald was certainly amazed at the performance, speaking to the media after the race saying. “I'm speechless, he's awesome. He was beaten at the 600m but he just finds a way. It's incredible. I dead-set didn't have one thing go my way. I had 10 riders dead-set against me and the horse. I just had no favours.”

The best performed international runner was the Japanese runner Prognosis who ran second in the FWD QEII Cup for the second consecutive year.

What was also on clear display was the talented Australian riders who are making a huge difference to Hong Kong racing – Zac Purton, Hugh Bowman and James McDonald who seems to have made Hong Kong his second home for the past two years with his successful hit and run missions.

Hong Kong trainers – Hong Kong horses – Hong Kong proud owners and Australian jockeys seem to be a formidable combination at Sha Tin on these feature race days.

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