California Memory will bid farewell to his fans at Sha Tin Racecourse on Sunday 14 June. The diminutive grey with a big heart and a mighty turn-of-foot retires as the only horse to have won back-to-back renewals of the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup (2000m) at the Hong Kong International Races.
The nine-year-old raced for the final time in last month’s HKG3 Queen Mother Memorial Cup (2400m) and will head off to a new life at Australia’s world renowned Living Legends facility with a record of nine wins and seven placings from 39 Hong Kong starts. He retires having earned total Hong Kong prize money of HK$50,696,050.
“He won the Hong Kong Cup twice and that was a great achievement,” said his trainer, Tony Cruz. “In the end he was nine years old, he had done his job; his prime time has gone and he deserves his retirement. He’ll go to Living Legends and hopefully he’ll just spend his time enjoying a long life in the paddock. He’s been a fantastic horse.
“He’s only small, about 15 hands 2 or something, but he’s a tough horse. He’s one of the very best I’ve trained. He had a hell of a good acceleration and the combination of his courage and his turn-of-foot made him one hell of a horse. ”
Cruz’s stable stalwart started his career in France under the watch of Carlos Laffon-Parias, although his first two races, in the summer of 2008, came across the Pyrenees in northern Spain. The son of Highest Honor showed his potential in those early days with a record of eight starts for three wins, three seconds and two thirds. His penultimate outing in France hinted at what was to come as he chased home a duo of subsequent G1 winners, Cavalryman and the mighty Cirrus Des Aigles, in the Listed Prix Matchem.
California Memory was pitched in deep for his Hong Kong debut. That came in the 2010 HKG2 Derby Trial when he trailed home 12.5 lengths 11th behind King Dancer. That was his only start that term but he made notable strides early in the 2010/11 season, opening his Hong Kong account with a Class 2 1400m success at Sha Tin on 24 October, 2010.
A trio of a defeats and a couple of Class 1 wins led California Memory to the HKG1 Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) in February, 2011. Sent off at odds of 30/1, the rocking horse grey with a then charcoal mane produced a breakthrough win. In what would become his trademark style, Cruz’s charge was last turning for home but, switched out to centre track, he shifted gear and rattled home with a decisive closing burst under Matthew Chadwick.
“He had a lot of problems from day one so he only ran one race in his first season and he showed a lot of speed in front, but once he got to the front he burned himself out,” recalled Cruz. “The next season, I decided we’d run him from behind. We went to a mile race and boy did he show his ability, so I entered him for the Gold Cup and he won. I took the gamble because I believed he was a very good horse.”
Chadwick was on board for California Memory’s first 18 starts and 33 in total. He was up top when, next start, in the G1 Audemars Piguet QEII Cup (2000m), the grey went down by three-quarters of a length to the great Ambitious Dragon.
It was another last-to-first victory, in the HKG2 Sha Tin Trophy (Handicap) over 1600m that October, that set California Memory on his way to the first of his Hong Kong Cup (2000m) wins. In the big one itself the gelding showed he was no one-trick pony as he sat handy and quickened late to see off the likes of Irian, Zazou, Ambitious Dragon, Byword and his old rival from his youth, Cirrus Des Aigles.
It was a similar story in 2012. A driving deep run nicked the G2 Jockey Club Cup (2000m) right on the wire and three weeks later he again took the Hong Kong Cup (2000m) to make history. As he had done the previous year, Chadwick opted to settle California Memory in a handy spot and the six-year-old, a shade paler in his coat than 12 months earlier, quickened brilliantly to see off a field of top-class international runners that included Giofra, Alcopop, Dan Excel, Military Attack and Saonois.
“The second win meant more to me than the first because of everything that had gone on through the year. We’d gone overseas and it hadn’t worked out and I’d been taken off him,” said Chadwick, who praised his old partner’s outstanding attributes.
“He’s got such a big heart. He’s got the gears, but it’s the heart, that fight, that sets him apart. He’s so small that, to look at him, you wouldn’t think he was that good. But he would accelerate and you’d be surprised by what he had. Because he was so small, he didn’t have a big stride, but the way he picked up he would go from off the bit to still off the bit but finding four, five, six lengths. He would just quicken up and be off. He wouldn’t come into a stride, he would just suddenly quicken.”
Second once again in that season’s G1 APQEII Cup, California Memory capped the 2012/13 campaign with a brilliant win in the HKG1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup, his first attempt at 2400m. In that triumph he quickened past the likes of Dominant, Irian and Liberator and cruised away from his stablemate and runner-up Willie Cazals. That victory sealed the Champion Stayer title.
It was to be California Memory’s final win. A third successive Hong Kong Cup was written off after the champ sustained an injury after running fourth in the Jockey Club Cup. He returned the following May and rounded out his unsuccessful, truncated, four-race 2013/14 season with a respectable third in the HKG1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup. His final season, 2014/2015, saw the by now ghostly white California Memory mix it with the younger guns and although he failed to score he still showed a bit of his old dash, notably when less than a length fourth in the G2 Jockey Club Cup.
“He’s played a really big role in my career, my education as a jockey, in helping me develop confidence in my ability,” said Chadwick. “I was seen as more of a front-running rider before but because of his racing style he really helped me develop and get rid of that perception.
“He has great character, he never gives up a fight and he was doing that right up to the last time he raced, it’s just his legs couldn’t take him there anymore. He deserves a good, long retirement, just relaxing under a tree in a paddock. And he deserves a good send-off so I’m pleased the Club’s doing this ceremony for him.”
California Memory’s race record makes him one of Hong Kong’s biggest talents of recent years and a bona fide world-class G1 galloper. His popularity with everyone on the Hong Kong racing circuit, race fans, journalists and horsemen alike, means that his easy to spot white frame, neck arched and on his toes, will be missed around Sha Tin.
The retirement ceremony for California Memory will be held at Sha Tin Racecourse after Race 5 on Prince Jewellery & Watch Day, Sunday, 14 June.
Profile of California Memory
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California Memory wins back to back renewals of the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup in 2012.
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