Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races

[my miss storm cat]

December 10th, one of the greatest days of racing.....


World stars of the Turf to grace Cathay Pacific HKIR 2006
22 November 2006
(Hong Kong Jockey Club Press release - no author listed)


The Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races 2006 will draw several of the biggest names in world racing to Sha Tin on December 10.

Hong Kong's premier sporting event numbers 33 international entries, including 18 individual international Gr.1 winners of a combined 39 Gr.1 races from nine countries outside Hong Kong. This year the four international Gr.1 races are worth a record HK$62m (approx. US$8m) in stakes.

"We are very much looking forward to our most important meeting, the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races. We feel that the quality and global diversity of the fields is such that Sha Tin will stage the Turf World Championships on the second Sunday in December and we guarantee a unique day of world class racing entertainment that just cannot be missed," said Mr Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the Hong Kong Jockey Club's Executive Director of Racing.

The Major Players

Ouija Board - The first dual winner of both the Cartier European Horse of the Year award and Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. Hong Kong race fans will witness the final start of a brilliant career that has yielded seven Gr.1 successes.
Pride - The world's top-ranked mare having easily won the Champion Stakes after an unlucky second in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. She too will retire after her second CXHK Cup attempt.
Takeover Target - The world's top-ranked sprinter on turf is already successful in the Global Sprint Challenge and chases a US$1m bonus with victory in the CXHK Sprint.
Mandesha - Europe's Champion 3yo Filly this season after an impressive trio of consecutive Gr.1 victories.
Bullish Luck - Hong Kong's Horse of the Year and champion miler in the Asian Racing Federation having won two legs of the Asian Mile Challenge last term.
Vengeance Of Rain - Defending Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup champion and winner of the 2005 World Racing Championship.
Alexander Goldrun - Five-time Gr.1 scorer whose finest hour came with a narrow win in the Cup two years ago.
Song Of Wind - Classic winner in Japan this season - his St Leger triumph last month denied Meisho Samson the Triple Crown.


The Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Vase

Gr.1 - 2400m - HK$14m (US$1.8m)

This is truly a World Championship event: horses from six turf authorities are led by a truly amazing mare that has won a European Horse of the Year crown, Breeders' Cup and a Classic not just once - she has done the lot twice. Next we have four Classic winners of St Legers in England, Ireland and Japan. It's worth noting that France and Britain have dominated the Vase with five wins apiece.

Preparing for what is scheduled to be the final start of a phenomenal career (and her third run in Hong Kong in 12 months), superstar mare OuijaBoard returns to the scene of her very dominant success in 2005. She has managed to raise her game even higher this season and last week was voted Europe's Horse of the Year for a second time - the first horse to do so. Dual Breeders' Cup winners are extremely rare and with seven career Gr.1 victories, she fully deserves her place in the pantheon of the great mares. Ouija Board runs in the Japan Cup this weekend.

Runner-up in last year's Irish Derby and winner of the St Leger at Doncaster and the Grand Prix de Paris, the Aidan O'Brien-trained Scorpion is genuine Classic performer. He is bidding for a first win in Hong Kong for the world famous Ballydoyle stable.

Shamdalaran fourth in this race last season but has improved this term to lift the Gr.1 Gran Premio di Milano, while the Aga Khan's other Vase runner, Kastoria, trained in Ireland by John Oxx, goes from strength to strength and ran out a convincing winner of the Irish St Leger in September.

The remarkable, globetrotting Collier Hill triumphed in the previous edition of the Irish St Leger and clashed with Kastoria last month in Toronto and came out on top in the Canadian International, his second success at the highest grade.

Stay Gold scored Japan's only victory in this event in 2001, although Six Sense, a 3yo, did best of the rest last year behind the mighty Ouija Board. The world has witnessed the vigour of Japanese horses in many of the world's best staying races in 2006 and therefore we are entitled to expect bold runs from two of the country's top three-year-olds: Song Of Wind, winner of the Japanese St Leger last time, and Admire Main, third on the latter occasion and previously the runner-up in the Japanese Derby.

Like Ouija Board, the French mare Freedonia contests this Sunday's Japan Cup and her best run this season earned a Gr.2 prize at Deauville, although she had no luck in the Prix Vermeille against Cup runner Mandesha. Connections recently cast the net wider in search of a breakthrough Gr.1 when she ran second in the Joe Hirsch Invitational at Belmont Park.

Egerton, from Germany,has top class form over 2400m. He has finished runner-up in his country's most prestigious race, the Gr.1 Grosser Preis von Baden, and recently filled the same position in the Gr.1 Preis von Europa. He also won at Gr.2 level over 2200m in July.

Only once in 12 years has a Hong Kong horse lifted the Vase and given the strength of the opposition, the odds appear stacked against the home team. The in-form Saturn, a course and distance winner in the Queen Mother Memorial Cup at Gr.3 level, leads the way, while Syllabus' rise though the local ranks is rewarded with a first international position.

The Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint

Gr.1 - 1200m - HK$12m (US$1.53m)

For the first time, the distance of the Sprint increases to 1200m. This bold initiative is rewarded with the fastest horses from five countries, including five Gr.1 winners, accepting invitations for the finale of the Global Sprint Challenge. Hong Kong has dominated the Sprint in recent years but, with an evenly balanced field of seven home-based runners against as many from abroad, this is perhaps the best chance for an overseas victory since Falvelon succeeded for Australia in 2000 and 2001.

The world's top-ranked turf sprinter, Takeover Target is just one win from an impossible dream. To just take part in four Gr.1 sprints in three continents in a year is an achievement in itself. But to win in three continents and be on the verge of a US$1m bonus is nothing short of phenomenal. Joe Janiak¡¦s speed machine has settled in well at Sha Tin and will be in tip-top order for the big race, his sixth appearance in the seven Global Sprint Challenge legs.

Red Oog is another strong challenger from Australia - he has won two Gr.1 races in a most competitive sprint environment and he will be a first runner in Hong Kong for Joe Pride, a protege of Hong Kong's champion trainer, John Size.

British-trained runners have failed to finish better than fourth in this event and Desert Lord, Benbaun and Red Clubs are charged with setting that record straight in 2006. Desert Lord won Europe¡¦s most prestigious sprint, the Prix de l¡¦Abbaye, in October on the same day as the consistent Benbaun finished fifth in the Sprinters' Stakes in Japan.

The Barry Hills-trained Red Clubs scored in the Gr.2 Diadem Stakes at Ascot in September. Now the three-year-old will use the CXHK Sprint as a platform to what appears as a bright future in Europe's best sprints.

The American Fast Parade is another very speedy young gun. He recently won the Nearctic Stakes (Gr.2-1200m) and previously set a track record at Del Mar. Fast Parade seeks to go one better than his compatriot Morluc, twice edged out in this race in 2000 and 2001.

Silent Witness (twice) and Natural Blitz have kept this race at home for the past three years. The former is not the unbeatable force he once was, but still commands plenty of respect. Natural Blitz, on the other hand, will have to transfer his excellent short-course form to the new distance of 1200m.

The remainder of the Hong Kong challenge is potent, to say the least. Scintillation has contested the last two editions of the CXHK Mile but he is also a Gr.1 winning sprinter and made a satisfactory reappearance in the CX International Sprint Trial won by Able Prince, third in this race 12 months ago. Able Prince is best fresh and will enter the Sprint after a relatively light preparation; trainer John Moore believes he is capable of further improvement.

Up-and-coming sprinter Down Town is the new kid on the block locally in this division and he delivered an excellent performance to get within a neck of Able Prince in the November 19 trial to fully merit his inclusion. He is expected to be better suited to six furlongs.

Top class sprinter-miler, Sunny Sing, a Gr.1 winner, completes the local speed contingent. Last year he carried off the Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Classic Mile but he also has abundant pace, proven by his success in the Gr.3 Sha Tin Sprint Trophy first up this campaign.

Japan sends two runners for the one CXHKIR race in Hong Kong it has yet to win. Leading the charge is She Is Tosho, the comfortable winner of the 5th leg of the Global Sprint Challenge, the Centaur Stakes, from Takeover Target. The other contender from across the East China Sea is MeishoBowler, runner-up in the Sprinters Stakes and twice a Pattern race winner over this distance in his homeland.