Hong Kong Win put on a masterclass of sit-and-sprint dash in the Connaught Handicap (1000m), at Happy Valley last night (Wednesday, 15 January). Clocking 56.31s to break a 14-year Class 3 record for the course and distance.
“He was ready to win, he was feeling so good in himself,” jockey Joao Moreira said after the four-year-old had stalked a hot pace and then shot past the lead pair to win by two and three-quarter lengths.
“It was impressive but circumstances also helped him out because they went quite fast up front and he just tracked them, and he was able to go past them any time I wanted.”
John Size’s Conghua-based charge broke his maiden over the Valley’s 1000m back in October and has since raced with credit at Sha Tin, most recently when third to the smart Duke Wai.
“He has improved as expected, probably because of the tough runs he’s had at Sha Tin,” Moreira continued.
“His runs at Sha Tin have been pretty good and if you run a good race over there you’re likely to be very hard to beat here as I believe the competition is not as strong here.”
Another longstanding Class record fell in Section 1 of the Edinburgh Handicap when Solar Wai Wai, also trained out of Conghua, lowered Dordenma’s September 2006 1650m Class 3 record with a time of 1m 38.61s. The win gave jockey Grant van Niekerk and trainer Frankie Lor their third success in tandem this term.
