Gold-Fun will lead a strong Richard Gibson battalion into the heat of a Group 1 raceday at Sha Tin on Sunday, 15 February, and he will do so over an unfamiliar distance as he steps down to 1200m for the first time in his career.
The six-year-old will take his place in the HKG1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize against the best that Hong Kong can muster over the six-furlong trip. Lucky Nine has won the race for two years straight, while Aerovelocity and Peniaphobia took first and second in December’s G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint at the course and distance.
Gold-Fun has developed into one of Hong Kong’s best milers since stretching his stamina to 2000m when third in the 2013 renewal of the HKG1 BMW Hong Kong Derby. The Le Vie Dei Colori gelding will now attempt to follow the path of his mother who notched her sole career win at 1200m, albeit in modest grade. His smart half-sister, Body And Soul, won five times in England at sprint distances, including in Listed class over 1200m.
“Sprinting the horse is something I’ve always wanted to try. I’ve never hidden that I’ve thought that the horse’s best trip was 1400m,” said Gibson, who has saddled Gold-Fun to win eight races, three of them at 1400m including last season’s HKG1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup.
“If anything, this year he’s physically developing more into the sprinter mould,” continued the Englishman. “We’ll try our best against a very useful bunch of the top sprinters in town.”
Gibson will also pitch Dundonnell into the fray. The five-year-old has made the frame in each of his five starts this term and won his penultimate outing, a Class 1 over 1400m. All bar one of the First Defence gelding’s 14 starts in Hong Kong have come at 1400m, and, like Gold-Fun, Sunday’s contest will be his first at a distance short of that. But he too has speed in his family, his dam being a full-sister to Danehill.
“Dundonnell is an interesting candidate,” said Gibson. “I’m very pleased with his season. I’ve always thought that he might be better with blinkers over a shorter trip. It’s a tough grade but he’s in fantastic nick.”
In Sunday afternoon’s other feature, the HKG1 Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m), Gibson will go to war with Giant Treasure and Obliterator, both in the Pan Sutong colours made famous by Gold-Fun and the now retired Akeed Mofeed. Giant Treasure placed third behind the re-opposing Beauty Only in last month’s HKG1 Hong Kong Classic Mile, the first leg of the Hong Kong Four-Year-Old Series, and will seek to make amends for that reversal in this second leg.
“We’re in a position where we’ve had a few choices going into this race,” said Gibson, who has opted to divert another of his exciting four-year-old’s, Got Fly, to a Class 2 the same afternoon. “Giant Treasure is the most highly-rated of mine and we think he can improve on his third three weeks ago. I think the horse is in better nick and he’ll be in better nick again in a month’s time (for the Hong Kong Derby).”
Asked whether he had any concerns about the grey son of Mizzen Mast staying the 1800m, Gibson was emphatic: “No.”
Obliterator had something of a reputation last spring in Ireland but failed to live up to expectations in four starts during 2014, including when last of 11 in the G1 Irish 2,000 Guineas. He did, however, wind up his European career with a “win” (demoted to second) in a Listed race on the Polytrack at Dundalk over 2136m, and Gibson believes the horse is entitled to improve on what he did last term. The Oratorio gelding showed that he was in good heart when a closing fifth over 1400m on his Hong Kong debut last month.
“We were delighted with Obliterator’s first run in Hong Kong,” said the trainer of his charge, who is currently rated 88. “We’re trying to get him into the Hong Kong Derby so he’s got to go with the big boys straight away. He just might have enough class to be competitive in this race.
“What changed things for him was his wind operation. Post wind op he won his last start in Europe. Since then he’s been good.”
“With Got Fly, in the end we decided that 1800m might be a bit sharp for him. If he’s got to go and fight against the very best we’d prefer to do that over 2000m next month in the Derby.”
