Not even a soundness question mark over star stayer Designs On Rome has dampened John Moore's belief that he can smash his own towering prize-money record in the new racing season, which kicks off at Sha Tin on Sunday week.
Moore begins the season as the reigning champion trainer by winners as well as by his preferred measure, prize money, and his title chase racked up nearly HK$140 million in stakes in Hong Kong races alone to break his 2013-14 record.
"The Jockey Club has raised the prize money this season, so it's on the cards that, if we can replicate last season's performance, our stakes total will be higher again," Moore said yesterday.
The trainer is particularly confident that champion miler Able Friend took no harm from his failed trip to Royal Ascot and will return to dominate again, but another major contributor, Designs On Rome, is under a cloud.
The five-time Group One winner was responsible for more than HK$25 million of Moore's tally in 2014-15, but has undergone joint surgery since his fourth to Blazing Speed in the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup in April.
"As far as the vets are concerned, the surgery was a success, but as we all know, those sorts of things have to be tested in races before you can be certain that the horse is over it," Moore said. "But I'm hopeful Designs On Rome will be a force again.
"We have some good young horses from last season who I expect to step up in the better races this time. And then there are the new ones - my son George and I have been very busy in the market in both the northern and southern hemispheres again.
I think we've already bought some exciting prospects and we are still negotiating in both hemispheres for a couple of very nice horses."
The headline act among Moore's - or, probably, anyone's Private Purchases for the new season - has to be Consort, with a price tag rumoured to be as much as £1.5 million (HK$18.16 million), the high end of which would make him the second most expensive purchase in Hong Kong history.
"Well, I'm not going to talk about the price. Let's just say, what he cost would buy you a couple of nice Rolls-Royces, but a horse of his calibre is expensive and these are the kinds of horses that Hong Kong wants," Moore said.
"Consort has won two from four, ran third to Gleneagles in the St James's Palace Stakes [at Ascot] and we've bought him off Highclere Thoroughbreds. I've only bought from them twice before and we got a Derby winner in Collection the first time and a Hong Kong Vase winner, Dominant, the second, so you might say there's a positive history there."
Moore also secured the Chesham Stakes winner Suits You and lightly raced Bartel among his northern hemisphere prospects, while his southern hemisphere list is headed by Werther, formerly New Zealand-trained but runner-up in both the South Australian and Queensland Derbies in May-June.
Meanwhile, local jockey Derek Leung Ka-chun will miss the opening day of the season as a result of his stint in England during the summer break. Leung incurred a whip-related suspension at Sandown Park last Friday that sidelines him from September 4 to 8.
