All eyes on HK as cream of crop gather at Sha Tin
NO English Classic winner has raced in Hong Kong. No horse who has won the fabled Melbourne Cup has graced Sha Tin. No winner of Australasia's greatest weight-for-age race, the Cox Plate, has travelled here.
Today history is made in Hong Kong when winners of all three of these races take their places in fields for the renewal of the Hong Kong International Races.
Silver Patriarch, winner of the St Leger at Doncaster, contests the $7 million Group Two Hong Kong Vase where he will clash with Rogan Josh, fairytale winner of this year's Melbourne Cup.
The great New Zealand filly, Sunline, turned in a quite superb galloping exhibition to win the Cox Plate and has since added a lesser race to her imposing record before attempting to win the final leg of the Emirates World Series Racing Championship, the Group One Hong Kong Cup worth $10 million.
The clash that has captured the imagination of Hong Kong racegoers is that between local hero Indigenous and Rogan Josh.
The superb effort of Indigenous, at odds of 66-1, to run second to Special Week in the Japan Cup, was the greatest effort put in by a Hong Kong horse overseas. That one scintillating run raised local racing to a significantly higher plane on the global map.
When Rogan Josh won the Melbourne Cup, the country erupted because it was the ultimate Aussie dream come true. Few who saw it will forget the finish or the memorable reaction of co-owner Wendy Green, the Darwin schoolteacher who, with husband Bob, drove down from the capital of the Northern Territory to Melbourne twice in a month to watch Rogan Josh run - and win.
The Perth-born stayer cost nothing in relation to the millions spent by Arab interests in a bid to win one of the world's truly great races. And Rogan Josh, superbly handled by John Marshall, just touched off dual Group One-winning Central Park, ridden by Frankie Dettori. Out of the Vase are Northern Drake and Fruits Of Love but the clash the public wants to see is that between Indigenous and Rogan Josh.
On the eve of a race that should pack the Sha Tin stands, those most intensely involved with the outcome of the 2,400-metre Vase - the two jockeys - voiced their thoughts.
Douglas Whyte: 'I have far fewer rides today than I normally would have because I want to be really focused on the Vase and Indigenous.
'What he did in Japan was magnificent. I knew when I worked him on Saturday before the race that this was a different horse, he was really back to the Indigenous I knew.
'When I rode him in his last bit of work, he gave me another great feel just as before the Japan Cup.
'But there are the obvious factors which could be against him: backing up pretty quickly, travelling and being down in bodyweight.
'But I don't know how that will all affect him until the 400-metre mark when I ask for that winning effort.
'If it's there, then we're home. I'm sure of that.' John Marshall: 'It is never easy to bring a horse overseas and win with it and a lot of people have found that out.
'But this fellow has travelled really well. Any kilo loss has been put back on and I can only judge him from his work. That has been really very good.
'You are rather expecting to find that something might be missing but I can honestly say that Rogan Josh just hasn't missed a beat.
'I respect the Hong Kong horse [Indigenous] because it was a great run in the Japan Cup. If he is in the same condition and runs that sort of a race he will be hard to beat.'
