Hong Kong!

[my miss storm cat]

Wow it was getting so damned depressing... going through retirements and knowing there are only 2 race days left BUT there's always good news. Sometime you just have to look for it.

FInal race meet at Sha Tin on Sunday (well there's still Happy Valley next week)... race 5 (it's a Class 5 but so what) is the Regency Horse Handicap!

How cool is that?

R6 is the Planet Ruler . Yea!

Mister Horse is entered, Joyful Winner (I'd imagine this time around it's his swansong), Jackpot Delight, Helene Witty, Bullish King, Chater Way...

Douggie leads Brettie by 2 in the jockey race (99 to 97).

Cheers to Zac Purton for winning 4 the other day!

Retirements.....

(Thanks for the exciting times, kids. Hope you all have long and happy lives).

DASHING CHAMPION
LAZY BUDDIES
SUPER IDEAL
PACIFIC ALLIANCE
WHATABOB
TRAVEL LEADER
CONNOISSEUR'S LOVE
VITALITY CHAMP
CENTENNIAL SMILE
SUPER TRAVELLER
MAGIC PRACTITIONER
FABULOUS START
OVER THE MOON
FORTUNE
THUNDER FLASH
GALLANT CHAMPION
TIBIDABO
MARBLE RED
SUPER GOAL MASTER
TRIUMPHANT DIAMOND (I'll miss this guy)
MAN IN THE MIRROR
GENERAL POWER
UNWRITTEN RULE
SOLITAIRE
DOWN THE ROAD
MYTHIC STEED
RIVER JORDAN
EXTRA SPECIAL
GALLANT MASTER
FORTUNE HAVEN
BLUE SAINT
PERPETUAL DELIGHT
CRAIGS DRAGON

[my miss storm cat]

Only 2 days to go till the end of the world. Ooops I mean season.


* * *


Sacred Kingdom crowned Horse of the Year

11 July 2010

Sacred Kingdom, a three-time Group One winner this season was crowned Horse of the Year as well as Champion Sprinter at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Champion Awards presentation ceremony today (11 July) during the final Sha Tin race meeting of the 2009/2010 season. He was also again voted Most Popular Horse of the Year.

Douglas Whyte was voted Most Popular Jockey of the Year for the fifth time.

Sacred Kingdom earned the title of Champion Sprinter for the third year in succession. During the 2009/2010 season, the Ricky Yiu-trained sprinter won the G1 Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint, then the HKG1 Kent & Curwen Centenary Sprint Cup and the HKG1 Chairman's Sprint Prize.

Able One was named Champion Miler . Trained by John Moore, Able One has had his career blighted by a series of stress fractures which prevented him from reaching his true potential after his upset win in the 2007 Champions Mile, and it was only this season that he made a full recovery. It was in the HKG2 Chairman's Trophy that he first showed he was back to something like his very best, and he then followed up in the G1 Champions Mile, which was won in exactly the same fashion as that race with a dash of speed early in the straight that no rival was able to pull back.

Collection was honoured as the Champion Middle-Distance Horse. The trainer John Moore's Derby hero last year landed two magnificent victories this season over his favourite Sha Tin 2000m distance: the HKG2 Cathay Pacific International Cup Trial and the HKG1 Citibank Hong Kong Gold Cup. He also split French Derby winner Vision d'Etat and 2009 APQEII Cup winner Presvis in the G1 Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup. These performances were the true indicators of his great talent.

Mr Medici won the title of Champion Stayer. After a season marked by consistent improvement over a variety of distances the Peter Ho trained five-year-old produced his crowning achievement when taking the HKG1 Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup in particularly testing conditions at Sha Tin on 30 May.

Entrapment was declared Champion Griffin. After six consecutive victories from his debut in February, the John Size trained three-year-old gelding ran out a very easy winner of his final outing in the Juvenile Sprint Trophy, a success which meant he had broken the Hong Kong record for most wins in a single season, an achievement which effectively ended argument about his superiority over an exceptional group of rivals.

John Size captured his sixth Champion Trainer's title with 74 winners. Among his most prolific horses were the then record-equalling Brave Kid with six victories and the record-breaking Entrapment.

The Champion Jockey and Champion Apprentice Jockey titles, as well as the Most Improved Horseand winner of the 2008 Hong Kong International Sale Bonus of HK$1 million, remain to be decided and will be made known at Wednesday's final race meeting at Happy Valley.

Members of the public cast a total of 350,146 votes between 13 June and 4 July to decide the Most Popular Horse and Most Popular Jockey of the Year. The three horses and jockeys with the highest number of votes were as follows:

Most Popular Horse (174,927 votes)
Most Popular Jockey (175,219 votes)

1. Sacred Kingdom
48,026
1. Douglas Whyte
74,647

2. Viva Pataca
19,710
2. Brett Prebble
54,403

3. Good Ba Ba
15,902
3. Matthew Chadwick
9,166


The Judging Panel announced the 2009/2010 Champion Awards as follows:

Award
Winner
Owner
Trainer

Horse of the Year Sacred Kingdom
Sin Kang Yuk
Ricky P F Yiu

Most Popular Horse of the Year
Sacred Kingdom
Sin Kang Yuk
Ricky P F Yiu

Champion Sprinter
Sacred Kingdom
Sin Kang Yuk
Ricky P F Yiu

Champion Miler
Able One
Dr and Mrs Cornel Li Fook Kwan
John Moore

Champion Middle-Distance
Collection
07/08 John Moore Trainer Syndicate
John Moore

Champion Stayer
Mr Medici
Mr and Mrs Allen Shi Lop Tak
Peter Ho

Champion Griffin
Entrapment
Benson Lo Tak Wing
John Size

Most Improved Horse
(Yet to be decided)
(To be presented on 14 July race meeting)


2008 Hong Kong International SaleBonus
(Yet to be decided)
(To be presented on 14 July race meeting)




Award
Winner

Most Popular Jockey of the Year Douglas Whyte

Champion Trainer John Size

Champion Jockey
(Yet to be decided and presented on 14 July)

Champion Apprentice Jockey
(Yet to be decided and presented on 14 July)


To recognise excellence in Hong Kong racing, the Champion Awards are organised by The Hong Kong Jockey Club with the Association of Hong Kong Racing Journalists as co-organiser and the Hong Kong Racehorse Owners Association as honorary adviser.

* * *

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHEW CHADWICK!

http://special.hkjc.com/promo/en/201...info.asp?cat=2

* * *

Chater Way wins...
http://www.hkjc.com/english/racing/r...eno=8&venue=ST

* * *

Retired...


SURE GAIN (J038) C H Yip 10/7/2010
HANNAH KING PRAWN (J178) A S Cruz 10/7/2010 (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! )
ENGINEERING WONDER (B300) L Ho 12/7/2010
SPLENDID SAILS (G077) K L Man 12/7/2010
MASSIVE STAR (J126) C H Yip 12/7/2010
SPEED AND GOLD (J151) C H Yip 12/7/2010
FORTUNE KING (K201) A Schutz 12/7/2010
COIN A LEGEND (L073) L Ho 12/7/2010
CASTLE ROCK (L198) C Fownes 12/7/2010
EASY (G095) K W Lui 9/7/2010
KING ENCOSTA (G247) P O'Sullivan 9/7/2010
MAINLAND SHUTTLE (G315) A S Cruz 9/7/2010
SPECIAL DRAGON (H325) A Lee 9/7/2010
FEEL THE FUN (J205) K W Lui 9/7/2010
ASALI VICTORY (J304) C S Shum 9/7/2010

* * *

Good for him!

http://racing.scmp.com/freeservice/n...ws20100712.asp

* * *

JOcks championship going down to the wire... good luck to Brett on Wednesday.

[my miss storm cat]

Last race of the season was just run... Brett won it (Perfect Style in the Bravo H.) and I think that puts the jocks at 100 wins for Douggie Whyte and 99 for Brett.

edit - hkjc

Congrats to Doug and to Derek Yeung.

One of these years Brett will win it.

Whyte and Yeung win the titles of champion jockey and champion apprentice

14 July 2010

In a thrilling finale to the 2009/10 season tonight at Happy Valley Douglas Whyte just resisted the determined challenge of Brett Prebble to retain the jockeys' crown he has worn since 2001. By doing so he became the first champion in Hong Kong professional racing history to reign for an entire decade.

After Sunday's Champion Awards ceremony at Sha Tin four major presentations remained outstanding. They did so only because competition for the titles remained so fierce that results could not be called until the very last meeting of the season. Now at last we know the winners of these dramatic struggles for supremacy.

The mighty battle for the Jockeys' Championship between nine times champion Douglas Whyte and Brett Prebble who has harried him throughout the season could still have gone either way when the Happy Valley finale began. In a fitting final flourish Prebble struck in the very last race with the appropriately named Perfect Style, but he had needed three winners to overtake the defending champion, and Whyte eventually secured victory with a total of 100 wins which gave him a margin of just one over his gallant rival.

The battle for the Apprentice Championship concerned three live contenders on the final night: Keith Yeung, Ben So and Derek Leung. After a struggle that has also lasted all season long Keith Yeung, who effectively guaranteed his triumph with victory on Cosmo Successor in Race 3, eventually took the title with 30 winners.

Entrapment, already elected Champion Griffin last Sunday, beat another rising star Tai Sing Yeh to claim the Most Improved Horse award with a rating improvement from 52 to 115.

The Caspar Fownes-trained Flying Supreme, who edged into the lead in stakes money after his victory on Sunday, won the HK$1 million ISG bonus for his owner Tse Kwok Fai with earnings of HK$ 2,756,750.