Falbrav building up for HK's international showpiece
This year's international meeting has been magnified by the news that Falbrav - described as the best middle-distance horse in the world at the present time - is on schedule for Sha Tin in December.
The $18 million Hong Kong Cup (2,000m) is the target for Falbrav, who proved his ability to travel by capturing last year's Japan Cup and has since moved to the stables of Luca Cumani to win four more Group Ones.
'Falbrav has won seven Group Ones overall, including four this year, and we've received very positive feedback from his connections,' the Hong Kong Jockey Club's executive director of racing, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, said yesterday. 'He will be going to race at the Breeders' Cup [this year at Santa Anita, California] and the trainer has already begun the process of making arrangements for his travel to Hong Kong.'
The Hong Kong Jockey Club has received 276 entries from 16 racing jurisdictions for the four international races at Sha Tin on December 15.
'It is our vision, in the long run, to stage the turf world championships,' Engelbrecht-Bresges said.
The sheer depth of class of this year's overseas entries has diluted the belief at Jockey Club headquarters that Hong Kong can maintain last year's strike-rate of winning three of the races with the locally-developed product.
'The quality of this year's entry is truly unprecedented,' Engelbrecht-Bresges said. 'I believe our best chances of winning will be in the Sprint.'
Australia's current champion Lonhro [21 wins from 28 starts] has been entered for the Hong Kong Mile, rather than the Cup, even though he is racing at the Cup distance of 2,000m at today's opening of the Melbourne Racing Club meeting at Caulfield.
HKJC consultant and former chief steward, John Schreck, said trainer John Hawkes had decided the Mile would be the more suitable race, given that the horse's primary Melbourne target race, the Cox Plate, precedes the HK Cup by seven weeks.
'I spoke with Mr Hawkes and Lonhro's owner Mr [Bob] Ingham a couple of days ago and they believe that given the timing of the race, and having the trip from Australia to Hong Kong, that the Mile represents the better option for him,' Schreck said.
Japan's globe-trotting ambassadors, Eishin Preston [2001 HK Mile] and Agnes Digital [2001 HK Cup] are entered again and both have won at Group One level this year, with Eishin Preston having annexed the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Sha Tin and Agnes Digital winning the Yasuda Kinen (1,600m) in Tokyo.
Seven horses from Macau have been entered for the Hong Kong Mile, headed by high-class former Australian galloper Royal Code.
