World stars among nominations for Hong Kong��s APQEII Cup, Champions Mile and Chairman��s Sprint Prize

16/03/2016

Hong Kong is the place to be this spring with 40 international Group 1 winners among the 109 horses from 15 nations and jurisdictions nominated for Sha Tin’s three championship features, the HK$20 million G1 Audemars Piguet QEII Cup (2000m) on 24 April, and the HK$14 million G1 Champions Mile and HK$10 million G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m) one week later on 1 May.  

Japan’s superstar miler, Maurice, and his compatriot, A Shin Hikari, are among the initial nominations, as is Ireland’s Highland Reel, and with Hong Kong’s own Peniaphobia engaged in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, this year is the first that all four victors from the previous December’s Hong Kong International Races are represented among the nominations for Hong Kong’s spring showcase races.

Mr. Anthony Kelly, the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Executive Director of Racing Business and Operations, said: “It is pleasing to see so many world stars among the nominations for our three spring majors here in Hong Kong. The Audemars Piguet QEII Cup and the Champions Mile are already well-established among the world’s very best races. The elite calibre of sprinters attracted to our newest international Group 1 feature, the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, is especially satisfying.

“With horses of such quality as Maurice, Duramente, Aerovelocity, Chautauqua, Lovely Day and Highland Reel setting their sights on Sha Tin this spring, we can all look forward to a real treat of a Group 1 triple-header.” 

Audemars Piguet QEII Cup
The first of the big three, the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup, ranks ninth in the World’s Top 100 Group 1 Races, issued by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities. Befitting that status, this year’s nominations feature 52 world class gallopers, 23 of them G1 winners.

The 52 are headed by four heavyweights from Japan, the G1 Hong Kong Cup (2000m) hero A Shin Hikari, last year’s highly-regarded G1 Japanese Derby winner Duramente, G1 Tenno Sho (Autumn) victor Lovely Day, and G1 Hong Kong Cup runner-up Nuovo Record, herself a G1 Japanese Oaks heroine. And then there are the exciting Japanese G2 winner Satono Crown and twice Classic-placed Real Steel.

Ireland is also represented by a big-hitter, Highland Reel, who broke trainer Aidan O’Brien’s Hong Kong duck with success in the 2015 G1 Hong Kong Vase (2400m). The European contingent also features G1 Mackinnon Stakes winner Gailo Chop, G1 Hong Kong Vase third Dariyan and G1 Beverly D. Stakes winner Euro Charline, who also holds a nomination to the Champions Mile.

New Zealand champion Mongolian Khan’s three G1 wins include the G1 Caulfield Cup in Australia last year for trainer Murray Baker, and also prominent among the Australasian nominations are last year’s AP QEII Cup third Criterion and fellow G1 winner Suavito, another with a dual entry to the Champions Mile. 

Hong Kong’s strong team is headed by the past three winners of the AP QEII Cup, Blazing Speed (2015), Designs On Rome (2014) and Military Attack (2013), while Sun Jewellery, Werther, Giovanni Canaletto and Blizzard are among the emerging four-year-old stars with entries.

Champions Mile
The G1 Champions Mile is the intended next target for Japan’s Horse of the Year Maurice, who would be returning to the scene of his brilliant G1 Hong Kong Mile triumph. The Noriyuki Hori-trained five-year-old is one of 12 G1 winners among the 43 nominations for the 1 May contest.

The race was opened to international competition in 2005. Variety Club in 2014 is the only overseas raider to have lifted the prize but this year’s list of out of town nominations also includes two stars from New Zealand, Turn Me Loose, a three-time G1 winner, most recently when taking out the Futurity Stakes at Caulfield, Australia last month, and another triple scorer at the highest level, recent New Zealand Stakes victor Volkstok’n’barrell.  Godolphin’s Safety Check, a four-time G2 winner at Meydan is also entered, as is Hong Kong regular, Ireland’s stalwart triple G1 winner Gordon Lord Byron.

The Hong Kong-trained nominations feature recent G1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup winner Contentment, last year’s HKG1 Hong Kong Derby winner Luger, the last two HKG1 Hong Kong Classic Mile victors, Beauty Only (2015) and Sun Jewellery (2016), and high-class G1 place-getters Beauty Flame and Rewarding Hero.

Chairman’s Sprint Prize
The G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize on 1 May joins Hong Kong’s spring G1 roster for the first time this year and the newly-promoted contest, the fourth leg of the Global Sprint Challenge, has all the hallmarks of a great race with 12 G1-winning speedsters among the 44 exciting nominations.

Chautauqua, whose three G1 wins include a thrilling last-gasp verdict in this year’s Lightning Stakes, heads a septet of Australian nominees that also features fellow G1 winners Buffering, Delectation, Terravista, Japonisme and Rebel Dane.

Hong Kong’s outstanding Champion Sprinter Aerovelocity leads a strong home entry that also features December’s G1 Hong Kong Sprint hero Peniaphobia, as well as Not Listenin’tome, Amber Sky, Super Jockey and a clutch of young talents, among them Thewizardofoz, Amazing Kids and Lucky Bubbles.

G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Mongolian Saturday ran a fine fifth in the G1 Hong Kong Sprint in December and could return for the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, while Japan’s 11 nominations feature the G2-winning mare Bel Canto, and among the European entries are the 2014 G1 Prix de l’Abbaye winner Move In Time and triple G1 winner Gordon Lord Byron, who is also nominated for the same day’s Champions Mile.