A total of 68
international Group 1 winners are among the 241 horses nominated for the four
LONGINES Hong Kong International Races, worth a total of HK$72 million, which
are to be held at Sha Tin Racecourse on Sunday, 8 December.
The outstanding list of nominations
features 12 of the Top 50 horses from the latest LONGINES World's Best
Racehorse Rankings, including the outstanding French racemare Moonlight Cloud.
Also among the stellar nominations are the brilliant British fillies The Fugue
and Sky Lantern, crack European miler Olympic Glory, Breeders' Cup Turf hero
Little Mike, G1 stalwart Cirrus Des Aigles and Hong Kong champion Military
Attack.
The G1 extravaganza
consists of the HK$22 million LONGINES Hong Kong Cup over 2,000 metres (95
nominations), the HK$20 million LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (101 nominations), the
1,200m HK$15 million LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (61 nominations) and the 2,400m
HK$15 million LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (79 nominations). A total of 95 horses
have been nominated for two races.
The nominees for this
year's edition of the Turf World Championships represent 19 countries
and regions as compared to 13 in 2012.
LONGINES Hong Kong
Mile-bound Moonlight Cloud is one of the best sprinter/milers of recent times
in Europe and has notched six wins in G1 company up to a mile. Most recently,
the Freddy Head-trained five-year-old slammed a top-class field with a
blistering last-to-first burst to capture the G1 Prix de la Foret at Longchamp.
"Moonlight Cloud is
very well and we intend to run her in the Hong Kong Mile," said Head,
whose outstanding mare is unbeaten in four starts this year. "She seems to
be getting better with every run, and although the race is late in the year,
she is very fresh and I am very happy that she is as well as she was during the
summer.
"For the moment she
is in half work, but in two weeks she will start her preparation and then we
will probably ship her to Hong Kong a week before the race. I think the race is
good for her."
Hong Kong hero
California Memory has made the LONGINES Hong Kong Cup his own for the past two
years. Tony Cruz's stable star leads a strong home team that includes Hong Kong
Horse of the Year Military Attack, winner of this year's G1 Audemars Piguet
QEII Cup at the course and distance and the G1 Singapore Airlines International
Cup.
Also nominated for the
LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (as well as the Vase) are the top English filly The
Fugue and crack French gelding Cirrus Des Aigles. The latter was runner-up for
the second year running in the G1 Champion Stakes at Ascot recently, a race
which he won in 2011. Corine Barande-Barbe's seven-year-old has competed at
three of the last four Hong Kong International Races and was only withdrawn on
the eve of last year's event due to a setback.
"Cirrus Des Aigles
has come out of Ascot very well and is likely to go for the Hong Kong
Cup," said Barande-Barbe.
"He was very well
after the race at Ascot and when he went to the vets he was bucking and
singing. As usual, he has been getting better and better from race to race this
season and I think the real Cirrus Des Aigles is back.
"He has been a bit
unlucky when he has gone to Hong Kong in the past. The first time in the Hong
Kong Vase, he was not mature enough, but still ran a good race to finish fifth.
He was caught wide with Stacelita in the Cup and then the next year he got boxed
in, but wasn't beaten far on both occasions. Hopefully, we will get better luck
this year and we are going there to get some revenge."
Sky Lantern, the winner
of Britain's G1 1,000 Guineas for trainer Richard Hannon, has caught the
imagination of racing fans this season with three wins at the highest level,
and has been nominated for both the Cup and the Mile.
Meanwhile, Japan's Lord
Kanaloa is in line to defend his title in the LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint. He won
the G1 Yasuda Kinen at a mile in June and won the G1 Sprinters Stakes back at
1200m last time. Trainer Takayuki Yasuda has also nominated the LONGINES Hong
Kong Mile but is leaning towards the Sprint, in which he could meet Hong Kong's
2011 winner Lucky Nine, England's G1 Nunthorpe Stakes heroine Jwala, and the
Irish pair of Sole Power and Slade Power. Lucky Nine, runner-up recently in the
G1 Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley in Australia, is the equal top-rated active
sprinter in the world according to the LONGINES World's Best Racehorse
Rankings.
Red Cadeaux is slated to
return to the scene of his greatest triumph in last year's LONGINES Hong Kong
Vase and could once again lock horns with Dunaden, who won the 2011 Vase for
France after victory in the same year's Melbourne Cup. The 2400m test is also
on the radar for G1 British Champions Fillies & Mares winner Seal Of
Approval and G1 Irish St Leger heroine Voleuse De Coeurs.
Mr William A Nader, the
Hong Kong Jockey Club's Executive Director of Racing, was delighted with the
high calibre of the nominations.
"The LONGINES Hong
Kong International Races is not only Hong Kong's premier sports event but also
one of world horseracing's greatest occasions, and a glance down the list of
excellent nominations for this year's event gives a clear indication of
that," said Mr Nader.
"We are pleased to
have 12 horses from the world's top 50 together with the raft of Group 1
winners that have been nominated. The likes of Moonlight Cloud, Lord Kanaloa,
Cirrus Des Aigles, and of course Hong Kong's very own heroes Lucky Nine,
California Memory and Military Attack, are big name draws on any day. Their
planned participation vindicates our assertion that the LONGINES Hong Kong
International Races at Sha Tin in December really is The Turf World
Championships."
A host of other
international stars are among the nominations including Ireland's G1 winners
Declaration Of War and Gordon Lord Byron - fourth in last year's LONGINES Hong
Kong Mile and since winner of the G1 Sprint Cup (1200m) at Haydock Park - and
fellow Mile nominees from France, Flotilla, Havana Gold, and Maxios.
For full lists of
nominations for all four races, please go to:
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