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Hong Kong��s John Moore relishes the world challenge

09/12/2015

A year ago this Sunday John Moore had his greatest day in 30 years as a racehorse trainer. Able Friend put daylight on an international field in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile and Designs On Rome nicked the day’s big one, the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup, with a last stride lunge. Both will again spearhead the Moore challenge at the weekend but things are a touch different this time around.

Heading into the 2014 LONGINES HKIR Able Friend was imperious – he looked unbeatable, and so it proved; Designs On Rome had tasted defeat in each of his three starts, but his form was on an upward curve and confidence was high, as reflected in his odds, 1.9 at the off.

Moore faces a different scenario this time around. True, Able Friend was sensational first-up, demolishing Hong Kong’s best sprinters at their own game, but then came that “flat” third-place run in his LONGINES HKIR warm-up last month, the BOCHK Wealth Management Jockey Club Mile. In that same race at Sha Tin, Designs On Rome ran home fast from deep to finish sixth; but that was the first and only start so far this term for last year’s Hong Kong Cup winner, who had bone chips removed from both front fetlocks back in May.

So does Moore feel an added burden this year; is the pressure greater given the less-than-ideal preparations of his two superstars leading into the 2015 LONGINES HKIR?

“I wouldn’t say I feel any more pressure this year than I did last year,” says the trainer, who has an all-time record-equaling six HKIR wins on the board. “If we’re to talk pressure, the only thing would be connected to the running of Able Friend last time. He did run home in 21.87s though, so the performance did have merit to it but not winning always leaves a small question mark and that in turn does bring a little pressure.

“I’ve been doing this for years, though I must admit I’ve never had a string of horses quite like I’ve had in the last two seasons. That always brings some pressure - when you’ve got favourites for big races - but it’s more to do with the public interest and the extra scrutiny that comes with it. Like any trainer, I keep to the routines and it’s an eye thing, seeing how they’re doing, watching how they’re eating.”

Moore arrived in Hong Kong more than 40 years ago, riding as an amateur and assisting his father, the great Australian jockey-turned-trainer George Moore, before receiving his own Jockey Club trainer’s licence in 1985.

In that time, he has seen Hong Kong racing progress from the dawn of the professional era in the early 1970s right through to the present, a time when Hong Kong stages 11 international Group 1 races, hosts a four-race HK$83 million extravaganza each December and is home to some of the world’s best racehorses and a clutch of the very finest jockeys.

“It’s the world stage now – it really is the Turf World Championship,” he says of the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races. “I feel a sense of pride in that. Pride for Hong Kong and a sense of pride that I’ve been here a long time, and it’s been great to be a part of the emergence of this event and then to see it become established as a world event. The Moore family has played its part in taking Hong Kong racing to the world, so there’s a sense of pride in that, in being a part of Hong Kong having a live chance of winning these international Group 1 races.”

Moore will field a team of ten on Sunday, with another past winner, the 2013 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase winner Dominant also set to take his chance. Despite his seemingly strong hand, Moore feels that this year the Hong Kong contingent faces the toughest group of overseas raiders for some time.

“Overall, the Jockey Club has attracted some really talented horses this year, which makes our job much tougher, but that’s what the event is all about,” he said. “We want to see the best horses to really fully test our Hong Kong horses and see that our best are equal to world class on the day. That’s what it’s all about.”

 

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