A good sprinter’s class can carry him a long way in an age-group race like the Group One Hong Kong Classic Mile and Ricky Yiu Poon-fai is also taking heart that Blizzard is not the only speedy contender with a distance query heading into Sunday’s feature at Sha Tin.
Blizzard has won four of his last six to storm into contention for the HK$10 million race, but has never been stretched beyond 1,400m and has given the impression that sprinting, not staying, will ultimately be his forte.
Still, the Classic Mile honour role includes names like Mr Vitality, Scintillation and Lucky Nine, all of whom later won multiple Group One sprints after taking the 1,600m race for four-year-olds, and Yiu has maintained all along that the son of Starcraft will “get” a mile.
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“Actually I am pretty confident he will run a strong a mile. His pedigree says it shouldn’t be a problem, and besides, the other high-rated horses haven’t been tried at a mile either,” he said.
The trainer was referring to the nominal top two picks for the race, John Size-trained pair Thewizardofoz and Sun Jewellery, as well as Francis Lui Kin-wai’s Lucky Bubbles – all in the similar situation of stepping up to Sunday’s trip for the first time.
Yiu said he has no intention of progressing beyond 1,600m and to the Hong Kong Classic Cup or BMW Hong Kong Derby, and has stuck with French veteran Gerald Mosse – a master of getting horses to relax in the run.
“To give him the best chance of settling we need a rider with good hands, and no one has better hands than Gerald,” Yiu said. “But even if he runs well at a mile we have no interest in going for the Derby.”
Blizzard was beaten just under three lengths by Thewizardofoz three weeks ago over 1,400m but endured a much tougher run than his rival in transit, sitting three wide with no cover in a fast-run race, and now returns to level weights after giving his rival five pounds on that occasion.
Even though Blizzard won on the opening day of the season and has seemingly done things the hard way each time he races, enduring wide runs and never scoring by more than a length in his six career victories, the tough gelding is standing up to the gruelling schedule, at least judging by his trial at Happy Valley last weekend.
“I don’t need to tell whether he is going well, just watch the trial, that tells you all you need to know,” Yiu said.
