Amber Sky will attempt to become the sixth horse to win back-to-back editions of the HKG1 Kent & Curwen Centenary Sprint Cup when he lines up in the 1000m dash at Sha Tin on Sunday, 25 January.
But trainer Ricky Yiu acknowledges that the Exceed And Excel gelding will not go to post quite as primed as he was a year ago. Amber Sky was sidelined with lameness after his last start in the G2 Jockey Club Sprint (1200m) in November, and then missed a further 14 days of track work over the recent Christmas and New Year period.
“He missed training for about two weeks after he ran in the 1200m race in November. The issue was that he pulled muscles and we monitored him and put him on medication,” said Yiu, who at the start of this month had all but scratched any thoughts of his stable star making the line-up for his main domestic target.
“He missed a couple of weeks again at the end of December. Before I went to Australia for the sales earlier this month, I wasn’t too optimistic about being able to run him on Sunday but when I got back I felt that we should put him in this race. He’s shown me that he’s well enough to run.”
Amber Sky blitzed to a brilliant two and a quarter-length success in 2014, one of six wins at the course and distance, and while Yiu knows the horse is short of his peak after the setback, he believes the five-year-old will still be in the mix.
“He won’t be as fit as when he won this race last year, but he will be close - his preparation is close,” revealed the trainer. “I’m happy with him, he’s out on the track every day and he’s getting there. He will be competitive. It’s a small field and he’s drawn well.”
Amber Sky, last year’s G1 Al Quoz Sprint (1000m) winner, was last seen fading out to finish three lengths eighth in the G1 Jockey Club Sprint over 1200m, a distance that evidence so far suggests may be just beyond his scope. Peniaphobia took the spoils that day and Tony Cruz’s charge appears to be the horse to beat after following up with a fine second in last month’s G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m).
Peniaphobia has drawn gate one in the eight-runner contest, while Amber Sky will break from gate seven under first-time partner Umberto Rispoli, one spot off the often favourable stands’ side fence. The David Hall-trained Bundle Of Joy, the mount of Joao Moreira, has the plum berth in gate eight.
The John Moore-trained Sterling City will seek to regain a glimmer of the form that took him to victory in last year’s G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen (1200m - Tapeta), while the veteran Eagle Regiment is chasing a history-making third success in the race after winning the prize in 2012 and 2013. Smart Volatility, Frederick Engels and You Read My Mind complete the line-up.
Best Of The Best (1999 & 2000), Silent Witness (2004 & 2005), Scintillation (2006 & 2007), Sacred Kingdom (2010 & 2011) and Eagle Regiment (2012 & 2013) are the five horses so far to have won the local Group 1 race twice.
The Kent & Curwen Centenary Sprint Cup is the first leg of the Hong Kong Speed Series and carries increased prize money of HK$6.6 million this year. The second leg, the HKG1 Chairman's Sprint Prize (1200m), also worth HK$6.6 million, takes place on 15 February. The third and final leg, on Sunday 15 March, is the Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup over 1400m, which will be staged as an international Group 1 contest for the first time this season and is worth a race record HK$10 million.
A bonus of HK$5 million will be paid to the owner of any horse that wins all three legs of the Hong Kong Speed Series.
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