Listen in to Little Mike, King Kreesa's races tonight!
 

There is no agreement to show live video from the Hong Kong International Races in the US, and this is probably the last year for that as commingling due to begin in early 2014. Toss back with a fireside, or bedside chat...listen in to the audio from the broadcast team on course. I'll be appearing prior to Little Mike's race, which is the 8th - the Longines Hong Kong Cup.

Action gets going from 11:30 PM US Eastern time. http://www.hkjc.com/english/press/live.asp

I have seen some hacked, and wildly unreliable internet streams of the race before, but they are almost impossible to find.

Race 4 - HK Vase 1:00 AM Sunday, US Eastern (The Fugue, Red Cadeaux, Seismos, Dunaden)
Race 5 - HK Sprint 1:45 AM Sunday, US ET (Lord Kanaloa, Lucky Nine, Sole Power, Slade Power, Jwala)
Race 7 - HK Mile 2:45 AM Sunday, US ET (KING KREESA, Moonlight Cloud, Sky Lantern)
Race 8 - HK Cup 3:30 AM Sunday, US ET (LITTLE MIKE, Military Attack, Side Glance, Cirrus Des Aigles, Grandeur)

For what it's worth, the Breeders' Cup has been the final run before Hong Kong victories for two of last 11 winners of Hong Kong Cup - Eagle Mountain in 2006, Falbrav in 2003.

If you haven't been following my reports, Little Mike has looked incredibly fresh and happy all week. Won't know how it goes unless you take the chance, but Team Romans is really very positive and keen, expecting a good run. It might not be good enough, but he is as good as he could be according to them.

When you click on that link to listen in, make sure you are aren't listening to an archive from Happy Valley, which is what plays when you click the stream from before the live day begins here.

Little Mike is being offered at 14/1 on Betfair. King Kreesa is currently being offered at 64/1.

Don't think I'd take triple those odds on either one.

You seriously wouldn't take a little bit of 31-1 on Little Mike? Really. Not at all? That's his price on the tote right now.

Current odds for HK Cup with $200k in the pools

Cirrus Des Aigles is 11-1
Little Mike is 31-1
Side Glance is 32-1
Grandeur is 35-1
Military Attack is 9-5
Akeed Mofeed is 2-1

Current odds for Hong Kong Vase, with a bunch of internationals...

Filly never first past post, Ebiyza, is 14-1...Dunaden is 15-1 (won this race in 2011).

The Fugue is 2-1

listening to the audio (because that's how I party on a Sat night... when it's below zero in Minnesota) and the quality is clean. The analysts seem to be very knowledgeable, but it's kinda fun listening to the international terminology and lingo being slightly different than ours.

How have I never heard of Zac Purton before?

Little Mike managed to beat 3 horses home. King Kresa managed to beat two horses home.

Even though none of them finished better than 9th place, it was most delightful to read of the European horses struggling...and race after race going to Asia based horses.

Our grass horses and grass racing remains 3rd rate at best. This fact is proven every single year in Dubai...where grass horses from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, all ship and win...while our horses are starting to flirt with going a combined 0-for-100.

We did absolutely dominate on dirt, in Dubai.

So long as dirt racing is the primary focus of racing in this country, our top horses race on dirt. Our top grass males are typically imports or American-bred horses that didn't make it on dirt. Not that it is a predictor of success on turf, but the following are top class dirt runners who were turf bred and have become leading "grass sires": Lemon Drop Kid, Smart Strike, Ghostzapper, Rock Hard Ten, Medaglia d'Oro, Arch, More Than Ready and Hard Spun.

Even a Hall of Famer like Lure was not tried on turf until short-priced defeats in the Lexington and Riva Ridge in the spring of his 3YO season. This past year, it would have been interesting with his pedigree to have seen Verrazano (by More Than Ready from a good Alexander female family) tried on turf; I would not be surprised to see him become a useful turf sire down the road.

Little Mike was only beaten 3 3/4L...King Kreesa was beaten over 11. Big difference, IMO.

Lord Kanaloa's performance in the Sprint was probably the most dominating performance I've ever seen in a top-flight grass sprint. You just don't win those in mixed company by five lengths. Black Caviar's largest margin in a G1 (albeit doing it easy), was 4L.

Kind of depends on how the races were run. Hopefully I can find some replays today.

I think that shows even being beaten only 4 lengths you can still be thoroughly outclassed in turf racing.

Despite his rider bouncing off the saddle like a bug boy as well.

Bounce and push method as opposed to lean and push. Plenty of Euros do it too, some of the better ones too.

It's hideous.

It doesn't look efficient AT ALL. Iwata, though, is one of the better Japanese riders. Then again, just about anyone could've ridden Lord Kanaloa he was that much the best.