On a day when Hong Kong horses swept aside their global competition, winning three of the four international races, it was only fitting that 13-time champion jockey Douglas Whyte led the charge, adding the Longines Hong Kong Cup aboard Richard Gibson’s Akeed Mofeed to his earlier Mile success on Glorious Days.
Last season’s Hong Kong Derby winner Akeed Mofeed wore down gallant Japanese leader Tokei Halo to win by a length, with veteran French galloper Cirrus des Aigles finally making the placings at his fifth Hong Kong visit in third.
Incredibly, Whyte had only ridden one winner on international day before, when he rode Indigenous to victory in the Vase in 1998 – right at the start of his Hong Kong stint – but he tripled his tally on Sunday and made an emphatic statement about his form in the saddle.
“It’s great to get these opportunities and I just knew I had to go out there and make it up to Pan Sutong [the owner] after what happened in the last race,” Whyte said, referring to the fact Glorious Days had nailed Pan’s Gold-Fun to win the Mile.
Akeed Mofeed had started the season in a lacklustre manner, looking flat in the National Day Cup and the Sha Tin Trophy, but the writing was on the wall after he flew home for second to Endowing in the Jockey Club Cup last start.
“At the start of the season he wasn’t performing so well, so I was hoping they’d use blinkers on him,” Whyte said. “However, they put the blinkers on him during his work, and it seemed to sharpen him up, so he didn’t need them on raceday.”
Gibson agreed.
“All credit to the horse, he’s always had the talent but he needed and deserved the international recognition at Group One level,” Gibson said. “He was peaking for today and everything went right.”
Gibson said there were international plans for the stallion, who has now won three of his nine starts in Hong Kong.
“We kept him as a colt because we had stud plans for him, and we’ll sit down and map out where to go from here. The new Sydney championships might be an option, also the Dubai World Cup meeting, but we’ll consider everything.”
