The Jockey Club yesterday signalled its ambition to build the Hong Kong Cup, the $14 million centrepiece of International Races Day, into the world's top turf event. Buoyed by the success of this year's event, which saw Fantastic Light crowned Emirates World Series champion after his stunning victory, the Club has set its sights on attracting even more of the world's top horses to compete in the Cup.
Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the Club's executive director of racing, said: 'It may take another two or three years to realise the race's full potential, because we also want to build up the strength of the Hong Kong team, but we have the facilities and the organisation to host the turf world championship. The quality of the Cup has gone up dramatically, and Fantastic Light is the highest-rated horse ever to win in Hong Kong. The race is already in the super league.'
According to the Club's figures, the Cup ranks fifth this year in terms of quality among the 11 Emirates World Series events, which include some of the world's most famous races. And the performances of the first four home made it the best-quality race ever run in Hong Kong.
Engelbrecht-Bresges said the key to attracting even better horses to Hong Kong was prize-money and he indicated that purses on International Day, which totalled $40 million this year, were likely to be raised again. 'It is now a real incentive for Hong Kong owners to buy the right horses for the top races, as we saw with Daliapour.'
But he added that Hong Kong also had other positive factors in its favour, notably the Club's zero-tolerance policy on drugs which led to Australian challenger Black Bean and Falcon Flight, from the United States, being withdrawn at the weekend because of positive tests. He said the issue of medication-free racing could help the International Races to compete more effectively with the Breeders' Cup, America's major championship day, where certain drugs are widely used.
'We want medication-free racing in the interests of our customers and the horses, but it is also in the interests of owners and breeders, who can be sure that results are fair.'
