Audemars Piguet QEII Cup tracknotes (Monday, 20 April) - Red Cadeaux ��fit as a flea�� as he closes in on earnings record

20/04/2015

The evergreen Red Cadeaux, a favourite among racing fans the world over, is as ‘fit as a flea’ according to his constant  travelling companion Robin Trevor-Jones in the lead-up to Sunday’s HK$20 million Group 1 Audemars Piguet QEII Cup (2000m) at Sha Tin.

The nine-year-old, on his 25th racing trip abroad, did little more than stretch his legs on the all-weather track this morning but trainer Ed Dunlop’s assistant is more than happy with his condition. “He raced in Australia nine days ago. He’s fit and he’s travelled well. He’ll have an easy week. We might give him a breeze on the turf on Thursday morning but we’ll see how he does. He doesn’t need much,” Trevor-Jones said.

Red Cadeaux will be competing for the 51st time on Sunday in a remarkable career which began in April 2009 and has seen him perform with distinction in no fewer than eight countries with Trevor-Jones invariably by his side.

Ironically he’s been celebrated in defeat more often than in victory with runner-up finishes in three Melbourne Cups; a Dubai World Cup; a Coronation Cup and, most recently, when he beat all but Sunday’s rival Criterion in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick in Sydney.

Those second prize cheques, in such rich races, have contributed greatly to his staggering career earnings of £4,991,952 (about HK$58 million at today’s conversion rate). To put it in some perspective, that tally is greater than the earnings of luminaries Frankel and Black Caviar; just shy of the dual Arc winner Treve and has him the highest money winning GB trained racehorse – a mantle once held by the 2009 APQEII Cup winner Presvis.

A first six finish on Sunday would see him top the 5 million mark in pounds sterling earnings.

But more than the money it’s been his competitiveness; his capacity to perform after demanding travel and his longevity which has endeared him to all. “He just takes it all in his stride,” said Trevor-Jones, “Sure he has some management issues and that’s why we avoid working or racing him on ground which is too firm….he’s not 100% straight-forward but no horse would be after 50 odd races over 70 odd miles.

“He’s in great order and he still wants to be a racehorse. He’ll tell us when he’s had enough but right now he hasn’t. Right now, you’d hope he’ll run another great race on Sunday and could be back here again in December after another Australian spring campaign.”

Trevor-Jones has consistently travelled horses for Dunlop throughout the new millennium. “I’ve been very lucky to work with horses like Ouija Board and Snow Fairy and everybody forgets Lailani who got the ball rolling when she went to Belmont and won the Flower Bowl in 2001,” he said.

Ouija Board and Snow Fairy were, like Red Cadeaux, international G1 winners in Hong Kong and won 13 G1 races between them in five countries. The less heralded Lailani won seven of her 10 starts and three G1’s on the trot in 2001.

Red Cadeaux cannot match the G1 tallies of his female stable predecessors – in fact his only G1 win came in the 2012 Hong Kong Vase (2400m) – but he is arguably as well known and as well regarded. “He’s a special horse,” is Trevor-Jones succinct appraisal, “In Australia we’ve had people travel some distance just to come and watch him in his work.”

Red Cadeaux was joined this morning, on the all-weather, by Australia’s Criterion and France’s Smoking Sun who similarly did little more than have a steady canter. Criterion’s trainer David Hayes arrives in Hong Kong tomorrow and the horse is expected to gallop on Wednesday morning.

Japan’s Staphanos did not emerge from quarantine this morning. “He’s fine,” said Hong Kong Jockey Club international scout Mark Player, “they were happy just to give him a little trot this morning.”

Another crowd favourite Military Attack, the 2013 APQEII Cup winner and runner-up to Designs On Rome last year, is progressing well according to jockey Zac Purton.

“He seems to be well. I trialled him recently and that was the best he has gone in a  long time, so I feel as if his form is back where it needs to be. It wasn’t ideal to have that time off and have him missing races like he has, but it’s just the way it is and now I feel he is back in the type of form that will hold him in good stead in this race. He has improved a lot since his last run,” Purton said.