Egyptian Ra emerged the biggest winner at the barrier draw for the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup and Champions Mile by drawing the coveted inside gate which will make him a formidable force in the HK$12m third leg of the Asian Mile Challenge on Sunday.
Trainer Tony Cruz could hardly conceal his delight when his front-running stable star was handed barrier one for the Champions Mile, the first international Breeders' Cup Challenge qualifying race of 2009 with the winner earning an automatic starting berth into the US$2m Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita Park on 7 November.
“It will be catch me if you can,” Cruz beamed, referring to Egyptian Ra’s defeat of likely race favourite Good Ba Ba when making all in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (HKGr.1-1400m) last month.
“He drew 13 in the international mile [Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile] in December and still ran third after burning too much gas to cross to the lead early on. Then last month in the [Queen’s Silver] Jubilee Cup, he drew six and won well. From gate one on Sunday, the aim will be the same: bounce right to the front and let them try and catch us.
“The horse has never been better and nobody rides him like Felix [Coetzee],” Cruz purred.
Good Ba Ba, Hong Kong’s Horse of the Year, drew out in barrier 10 of 11 runners. However, Andreas Schutz appeared more concerned with the gate allocated to Egyptian Ra rather than his own horse, a ten-time course and distance winner.
“Even if we had drawn five, I’d be more worried about Egyptian Ra in gate one because he can stretch the field out from there. I’d be very worried about Tony’s horse having it all his own way in front. He has beaten us twice like that this season. Still, our horse is fit and fine and he will relish being back over the mile rather than the 1400m like last time,” Schutz said.
The John Size-trained More Bountiful bolsters an already powerful home-based challenge and he drew gate four. More Bountiful incurred the biggest single rise in the local ratings this decade – 21lbs – for winning the Chairman’s Trophy (HKGr.2) at the course and distance last month and the outcome came as no surprise to John Size.
Now the multiple champion trainer aims for a seventh win of the season - a feat never achieved in the professional era of Hong Kong racing.
“He has come out of the last win very well and you can’t argue with his record up to a mile. His only defeat at the distance was in the Gr.1 [Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong] Classic Mile and he was unlucky to lose that by a short-head. In the Derby Trial and the Derby itself he wasn’t suited by the distance or the tempo. This is his best distance,” Size said.
“The important thing with More Bountiful is that he settles but I probably would have preferred to be drawn a little wider than gate four. But he should still run well.”
Expanding on his other Champions Mile runners – Armada, Sight Winner and Unique Jewellery – Size said he would have preferred a lower alley than the widest gate of 11 for Armada.
“He loves cover and it might be tough to find it from there,” Size continued, “while Sight Winner and Unique Jewellery will need career bests but they have drawn a little better.”
As for the overseas raiders in the Champions Mile, co-trainer Michael Hawkes (Dao Dao), jockey Kevin Shea (Imbongi) and Godolphin’s travelling head lass, Claire Sparkes (Alexandros), all declared themselves happy with their low barriers in two, three and five respectively.
Shea added: “We are climbing the ladder here and it won’t be easy. But three is perfect because I hope to settle behind Egyptian Ra who it seems will make the running.”
Trainer John Moore could not attend the barrier draw having suffered a mishap on his bicycle a day earlier, although he might have heartened by barrier seven for recent Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby winner, Collection, in the Champions Mile.
Nonetheless, a potentially fraught passage may lie in store for Moore’s other former Derby hero, Viva Pataca, from barrier one in the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup, particularly if one recalls how the horse repeatedly struck traffic along the inside rail in the final stages of the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup last December.
No such concerns were expressed by Kevin Shea who won this race last year on Archipenko and who exits gate two on the same horse in 2009.
“It’s absolutely perfect for ‘Archie’” he enthused, “I can be in the right spot from the word go with this horse tucking in behind the leaders. He doesn’t have to be too far back. It’s just perfect.”
Explaining Archipenko’s seemingly sub-par sixth in the Dubai Duty Free last month, trainer Mike De Kock added: “You can put a line through that run. All the horses who were handy and doing the chasing [behind the winner Gladiatorus] were spent a long way out. If we had gone out to run second, we would have ridden him very differently – but we were trying to win. The horses that made some ground were those out the back early.”
Trainer David Hayes was not too downcast with the outside barrier of ten for Niconero, saying: “Well, we drew inside in Dubai and that didn’t work out as we had all the bad luck so maybe this is not so bad. I guess we will simply go back and swoop late.”
Of the barrier eight allotted to the well-fancied Presvis, Charlie Henson, assistant to trainer Luca Cumani, remarked: “I’m not sure the gate is critical for him. Maybe you would be a little concerned if it’s a crawl early but this horse can be a little handier than you might think. But I wouldn’t want him too close in the run.”
Carlos Laffon-Parias, trainer of the French runner Chinchon who has gate five, added: “It’s all about the pace really. If they are not going too quickly, obviously you would like to be handy and maybe we have that chance from the middle draw.”
Both trainers Peter Ho and Danny Shum also said they were happy with gates six and seven for their runners Packing Winner and Thumbs Up.
