By Andrew Hawkins
Fresh off a landmark night at Happy Valley on Wednesday, trainer John Size enters the G1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup double-handed as he aims to score a third win in the Sha Tin feature on Sunday (26 February). And in Contentment and Sun Jewellery, the Australian handler holds a pair of potential aces for the only G1 held over 1400m in Hong Kong each year.
Size entered a rare club on Wednesday night when he joined John Moore and Tony Cruz as the only horsemen to prepare 1000 Hong Kong winners. The trainer was quickly focused on Sunday’s races, though, particularly his two G1 runners.
Contentment’s win in last year’s Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup, the second leg of the Hong Kong Speed Series, gave Size his second success in the race, having won the contest with Electronic Unicorn in 2004.
Jockey Brett Prebble was in the plate for the first time that day, and has partnered the Hussonet gelding at each of his nine starts since - efforts that have included a second in the G1 Champions Mile to Maurice, a fourth to Beauty Only in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile and even an overseas sojourn to Japan, although that ended in disappointment when he finished last of 12 in the G1 Yasuda Kinen (1600m) in Tokyo in June.
“He’s been consistently running the same race every start this campaign, at least once he got into his preparation,” said Prebble at Sha Tin trackwork on Friday morning (24 February). “Is he below his best from when I won on him? Yeah, I think he is, but he’s just been so consistent without running to that peak again. But he’s with John Size, so you know that he is capable of producing it from them at any time.
“He’s fit and well, he’s holding his form very strong and he did trial well since his last start. The problem is that he is one and a quarter lengths off them every time, he needs to find that margin.”
Prebble says the return to 1400m, where Contentment has won five from eight and has only missed the board once, is a crucial factor for his chances of snaring back-to-back Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cups.
“The 1400m is his pet distance,” he said of the six-year-old, drawn in gate six. “The mile, he runs well but he lacks that kick. This is right up his alley. Also, a smaller field might change things around, it should be a slower tempo and maybe he’ll control the race or find himself in a position where he’s more favoured. That will suit him.”
Sun Jewellery looks another suited by a potentially tactical race, as he seeks to turn his season around after a handful of poor races in the big mile contests.
“It looks like this race is going to play out well for him,” jockey Zac Purton said of the five-year-old, who will jump from gate four in the eight-horse field. “He’ll be somewhere up near the speed and he should be suited. It’s going to give him every chance to produce his best and hopefully he does.”
Purton had not been aboard the Snitzel five-year-old before he tested him in a recent barrier trial on the Sha Tin all-weather track, clocking 1m 10.65s for the 1200m as he finished first past the post, ahead of G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) runner Blazing Speed. And Purton believes the trial may indicate that the chestnut is close to returning to the form which saw him take the first two legs of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series, the Hong Kong Classic Mile and the Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m), in 2016.
“I was pleasantly surprised because his form this season didn’t look flash,” the Australian rider said. “It looked like he was struggling on raceday, but he did everything right in the trial. He jumped out well, he travelled good, he towed me into it and he gave me a good feel. Hopefully, he’s not just a morning horse and he can do it in the afternoons too!
“The trial does give me a little bit of confidence going to the races thinking that he may be starting to find himself again.”
Size’s fellow members of the millennium club, Moore and Cruz, both send out runners, with Moore in particular possessing a strong hand. He saddles up 2015 winner Able Friend, last-start G1 Stewards’ Cup winner Helene Paragon and consistent Joyful Trinity, while Cruz is represented by Giant Treasure, having just his second run for the stable.
Ricky Yiu’s up-and-coming chestnut Blizzard and Tony Millard-trained Strathmore complete the eight runners for the G1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup, which jumps as the third of 10 Sha Tin races at 2pm on Sunday. The other G1 feature, the Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m), is scheduled for race seven at 4:05pm.
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Photo 1:
Contentment (front) wins last year��s Queen��s Silver Jubilee Cup impressively.
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