Neil Morrice shares all of his best bets and tips for Sunday’s racing coming your way from Champions’ Day at Sha Tin as well as the best of the rest from Musselburgh and Wetherby on 30 April 2023.
SHA TIN – CHAMPIONS’ DAY
Our man Neil has been in Hong Kong throughout this week and has had the opportunity to see the Champions’ Day runners put through their paces ahead of the big meeting. Check out his picks for the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, the Champions Mile and QE II Cup below:
Race 5 CHAIRMAN’S SPRINT PRIZE (Group 1)
No 1 LUCKY SWEYNESSE
Trainer: Manfred Man – Jockey: Zac Purton
While it might be a little far-fetched to say local sprinters have an iron claw wrapped around this HK$20 million purse, it would not be a total surprise if LUCKY SWEYNESSE led home his compatriot and 2022 champion sprinter WELLINGTON, the two horses that have dominated this discipline at Sha Tin this year.
Lucky Sweynesse has six wins in his locker this season including the Group 1 Centenary Sprint Cup and the Group 1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup, and with each appearance his superiority over the two years older Wellington seems to be growing. The Manfred Man-trained four-year-old does far more talking on the track than his handler affords members of the media, and under Zac Purton can extend his winning spree, though whether he takes up the offer to contest the Platinum Jubilee at Royal Ascot is open to conjecture.
Richard Gibson has already spoken of an Ascot challenge with Wellington, but that was when his charge rather fortuitously downed Lucky Sweynesse in the Hong Kong Sprint in December. Subsequent evidence is that 12-race winner Wellington is not as good as he was, and might be as effective over 1400 metres than the sprint distance.
If there’s a joker in the pack it might be the Hugo Palmer-trained FLAMING RIB who has exuded a bright persona on the track this week and is better going round a bend than galloping straight, as shown with his triumph at Doha in February.
SIGHT SUCCESS took home a minor cheque in the Al Quoz Sprint on Dubai, with Flaming Rib behind, and John Size’s charge also enters the argument and could serve it up to them racing handily from the gate.
Prediction: 1st LUCKY SWEYNESSE, 2nd Flaming Rib, 3rd Wellington, 4th Sight Success
Race 7 FWD CHAMPIONS MILE (Group 1)
No 5 BEAUTY JOY (Nap)
Trainer: Tony Cruz – Jockey: Hugh Bowman
No horse has won the Champions Mile three times but ‘people’s champion’ GOLDEN SIXTY is odds-on with Hollywoodbets to buck that trend for trainer Francis Lui and jockey Vincent Ho. He may not have drawn as well as connections hoped, but since joining Beauty Generation as the only horses to complete the Hong Kong Mile/ Champions Mile double in consecutive seasons (2020/21 & 2021/22) he’s hardly put a foot wrong.
CALIFORNIA SPANGLE can take heart that he’s one of the few horses to inflict defeat upon the Medaglia d’Oro seven-year-old. That happened at the International meeting in December when Tony Cruz’s front-runner benefitted from master timing to make every yard under Zac Purton. Breaking from the eight gate on Sunday, with Golden Sixty one slot inside him, Purton will surely have no alternative but to take California Spangle to the lead.
Hold up horse MY OBERON ran a cracker in defeat in Randwick’s Doncaster Mile but would prefer rain which is unlikely to materialise, and the one that could upset the applecart is therefore BEAUTY JOY.
Tony Cruz is pushed to split his two contenders, but Beauty Joy is perhaps the only horse in the field with room for progression. The chestnut might have gone eight starts without a win, but the latest evidence from an unlucky passage in the Chairman’s Trophy is that he’s peaking, as he was rapidly closing down his stablemate and might have won had Matthew Chadwick has been able to extricate him. Hugh Bowman is now reunited with the chestnut, and granted the rub of the green at the business end they can swoop to conquer.
Prediction: 1st BEAUTY JOY, 2nd Golden Sixty, 3rd California Spangle, 4th My Oberon
Race 8 FWD QUEEN ELIZABETH II CUP (Group 1)
No 4 DUBAI HONOUR
Trainer: William Haggas – Jockey: Tom Marquand
ROMANTIC WARRIOR enjoyed a stellar season in 2022 when completing the Hong Kong Derby, Queen Elizabeth II Cup and Hong Kong Cup treble in the same year. The Danny Shum-trained gelding was rightfully crowned champion four-year-old and is the best middle-distance performer in Hong Kong. He’s been forced to chase the shadow of Golden Sixty on his last two starts, and now has James McDonald back in the irons for the first time since his Hong Kong Cup triumph last December.
Four Japanese-trained horses challenge for the HK$50,000 prize of whom DANON THE KID and PROGNOSIS have impressed me most in trackwork through the week. Danon The Kid will try to turn the tables with Romantic Warrior and has four and a half lengths to find with him from the Cup in December, while hold-up runner Prognosis took out the Group 2 Kinko Sho on his latest start at home, and looked good in a short blow out on the turf track on Wednesday.
DUBAI HONOUR bagged back-to-back Group 1 triumphs in Sydney when landing the Ranvet Stakes and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick. Second to Bay Bridge in last season’s Champion Stakes at Ascot, he has shown a marked preference for cut in the ground but is yet to show he doesn’t handle the quicker terrain he will race over at Sha Tin.
He looks magnificent and interestingly hasn’t been asked any questions in training since his arrival. Potentially he’s the best horse in the race prepared by a master handler in Haggas, and under Tom Marquand can make it an afternoon to remember for Great Britain.
Prediction: 1st DUBAI HONOUR, 2nd Romantic Warrior, 3rd Danon The Kid, 4th Prognosis
MUSSELBURGH
Race 2 No3 BLUE PRINCE (Nap)
Trainer: Richard Fahey – Jockey: Oisin Orr
BLUE PRINCE is up against a couple of first-time out winners but is a potential improver following an eye-taking first offering in his own right. He attracted plenty of support for that introduction at this track but ran green. The son of Blue Point will be more streetwise, and can add to his sire’s excellent start as a stallion.
Race 3 No9 CHEALAMY (Each Way)
Trainer: James Ferguson – Jockey: Billy Loughnane
Siyouni filly CHEALAMY shaped well against a handicap snip on her return to action at Southwell and now switches back to turf, on which she raced on all three juvenile starts. Loughnane is an eye-taking booking for the grey, who though in a warm-looking heat has strong claims to open her account.
Race 7 No10 MATTICE (Each Way)
Trainer: Tim Easterby – Jockey: Sean Kirrane
MATTICE is representative of a number of runners from the Easterby yard that are needing their first run back. His midfield finish here earlier in the month is there to be improved on, and he should take away a decent cheque.
WETHERBY
Race 2 No1 OBAMA ARMY (Nap)
Trainer: Jack Channon – Jockey: George Bass
OBAMA ARMY cuts back on the distance ladder after being nailed in the final stride over a mile and a quarter at Nottingham. The Washington DC gelding looked a shade unfortunate not to hold on, and though 3lb higher is probably still ahead of the handicapper.
Race 5 No3 TWELFTH KNIGHT
Trainer: Ruth Carr – Jockey: James Sullivan
TWELFTH KNIGHT looked like a horse that’s benefited from a change of scenery when returning to score with something up his sleeve at Redcar. Off a 4lb higher mark he can post back-to-back wins at the main expense of EY Up It’s Maggie.
