An exciting finale to this season’s Million Challenge is on the cards at Happy Valley tomorrow night, Wednesday 1 April, with a whole raft of contenders still in contention for a share of the competition’s HK$1 million purse.
All Great Friends heads the leaderboard going into the last fixture of the 2014/2015 Million Challenge, which began on 19 October and rewards horses competing at Happy Valley in Class 3 races and above. Manfred Man’s charge has 44.5 points, with his nearest pursuers Twin Delight and Choice Treasure both on 42 points.
The Million Challenge awards 15 points for a win, six points for second place, four points for third place and three points for fourth place. All Great Friends’ connections will be hoping for a victory in race six on Wednesday to seal the HK$650,000 first prize.
Neil Callan will ride the Myboycharlie gelding in a race for the first time but the Irishman has galloped the horse three times in the last eight days, with All Great Friends clocking 52.7s (28.1, 24.6) for his most recent 800m all-weather spin, on 30 March.
“He’s going really well,” said Callan of the four-year-old. “He’s won four races this season but he seems to still have that same frame of mind and he’s still fresh in himself, so I expect, from a good draw, that he will run a big race. He’s very well.”
Man last saddled the Million Challenge winner in the 2010/2011 season when Turbo King took the winner’s cheque.
In race five, Zac Purton will be aiming for a victory to pile some pressure onto Callan and All Great Friends. Twin Delight, the Australian’s mount, won a Class 3 at the course and distance earlier in the season and is stepping back to 1650m after running second at the Valley over 1800m last start.
“1650m is probably a little better for him, just for the fact that he doesn’t really relax in his races, he always just wants to be a bit busy and do a bit of work,” said Purton of the Caspar Fownes-trained four-year-old. “That didn’t help last time when he was made to work early in the race and just got touched off at the line. It was a good effort but 1650m, with his high cruising speed, is probably a better distance.”
Should Twin Delight and All Great Friends fail to score, Purton will find himself on another Million Challenge win chance in race seven. Hong Kong’s reigning Champion Jockey will get the leg up on Choice Treasure for Dennis Yip and success would take the five-year-old’s points tally to 57 points.
Wins for any of the three leading contenders would make the eighth race academic. But failure would give the Tony Cruz-trained Clever Beaver a chance to snatch the spoils with a win in the 1200m Class 3. Alvin Ng’s mount is a two-time course and distance winner this term and is on hat-trick after a pair of wins in March.
All told, 11 horses are going into the finale with a mathematical chance of scooping the top prize, depending on how results pan out. Among those, Amazingly (race five), Disciples Twelve (race six), Regency King (race six), Oriental Prosper (race eight) and Gentilis (race eight) are well positioned to mount an assault on the prize pool as each has 36 points.
As well as a HK$650,000 first prize for the winning owner, the Million Challenge also offers a second place purse of HK$250,000 and third place price money of HK$100,000.
Should any horses finish on equal points, the horse with the most number of higher point earning placings will take the prize. Should any horses be level after applying that method, the prize will be equally shared.
The Happy Valley Million Challenge finale race night is a nine-race card. The first race, the Class 5 Victory Handicap, is due off at 6.45pm and the last race is scheduled for 10.50pm.
