Blazing Speed heads 11 entries for the final Group 1 race of Hong Kong’s 2014/15 season, the HK$10 million Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup, at Sha Tin on Sunday, 31 May.
Tony Cruz’s charge landed the spoils last year and looks to be heading into the 2400m feature in peak form once again following his success in last month’s G1 Audemars Piguet QEII Cup (2000m). Viva Pataca in 2006 and 2007 was the last horse to achieve back-to-back wins in the final leg of Hong Kong’s Triple Crown.
Among the 10 rivals slated to oppose Blazing Speed in the stamina test are Khaya and Thunder Fantasy, both from the John Size stable. Khaya ran third to the French raider Flintshire in December’s G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m), while the four-year-old Thunder Fantasy scored his biggest success this term in the HKG1 Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m).
The pair stretched their legs in a 1200m all-weather barrier trial at Sha Tin this morning, Friday 22 May, with both horses working to enhance their fitness ahead of the stamina test in nine days’ time. Khaya travelled handily and was niggled through the closing stages by Karis Teetan.
“He did some work today and that will bring him on in his fitness for the longer distance. He’s fit and well, he’s healthy and that’s the main thing,” said Teetan.
Thunder Fantasy had a quieter time of it under Brett Prebble as he stayed out of the kick-back and bowled home at the back of the nine triallists.
John Moore saddled the mighty Viva Pataca to three wins all told in the Champions & Chater Cup and this time the handler appears set to rely on a quartet of talented runners headed by this month’s HKG3 Queen Mother Memorial Cup (2400m) winner Helene Happy Star and the 2013 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m) victor Dominant.
Same World and Harbour Master are the other two potential Moore contenders, while Mr Gnocchi, newly in the care of Tony Millard, the Tony Cruz-trained Helene Super Star and the Richard-Gibson-trained duo Take To The Limit and Wayfoong Express are also engaged.
This year’s Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup is the first to be staged as an international Group 1 contest, open to overseas challengers, having been designated a local Group 1 race since 1992.
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