It's the most wonderful day of the year

[my miss storm cat]

The (HK$72 million) Longines Hong Kong International Races (formerly Cathay Pacific)... December 9th at Sha Tin.

Withdrawn...
Ato, Red Jazz, The Fugue, Mount Athos, and Mr. Big.

The fields are looking something like this...


Hong Kong Sprint (Group 1) – 1200m
HK$15 million (US$1.934 million)


Little Bridge
Lucky Nine
Super Easy
Joy And Fun
Lord Kanaloo
Admiration
Leading City
Time After Time
Captain Sweet
Cerise Cherry
Flying Blue
Sea Siren
Curren Chan


Hong Kong Mile (Group 1) – 1600m
HK$20 million (US$2.578 million)


Ambitious Dragon
Xtension
Glorious Days
Gordon Lord Byron
Sadamu Patek
Grand Prix Boss
Pure Champion
Don Bosco
Master Of Hounds
Packing Whiz
Packing OK
Siyouma


Hong Kong Cup (Group 1) – 2000m
HK$22 million (US$2.836 million)


Cirrus des Aigles
California Memory
Carlton House
Alcopop
Sweet Orange
Irian
Zaidan
Dan Excel
Military Attack
Saonois
Feuerblitz
Autumn Gold
Giofra


Hong Kong Vase (Group 1) – 2400m
HK$15 million (US$1.934 million)


Sea Moon
Dunaden
Meandre
Chinchon
Joshua Tree
Red Cadeaux
Dandino
Jaguar Mail
Liberator
Scarlet Camellia
Dancing Rain
Pagera
Bayrir

[my miss storm cat]

Let's do an edition of Meet the Horses since everyone is sooooo excited about the BEST DAY OF THE YEAR.

From our good friends at the HKJC who really should list a writer but didn't...

For people who want to root for one of the little guys.

Saonois, a baker’s fairytale

Hardly any other Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe contender has made a louder splash in the French non-racing press these last few years than LONGINES Hong Kong Cup hope Saonois. Every possible ingredient of a fairytale was in the back-story of the one-time claimer made Derby winner, conditioned by a modest, provincial trainer, for a baker who bought his first racehorse online. The fact that the three-year-old’s owners, Pascal Treyve and his trainer Jean-Pierre Gauvin, refused a multi-million Euro offer from the prominent Al-Thani family of Qatar further enthused the French racing mob, always happy to back Cinderella versus the Royals of the Turf.

No one would have bet a dollar – let alone 25,000 Euro – on Saonois’s chances of reaching such heights when he started unassumingly as a two-year-old in June 2011 at Lyon-Parilly racecourse, near the Chazey training centre where Jean-Pierre Gauvin’s stables stand. Yet the brave little bay began with a few places and then won at his fourth attempt on Deauville’s fibresand track in a modest claimer. Anybody there that day could have bought him for a minimum 25,000 Euro, but no one bothered to make an offer.

So the story is that Saonois really started to make a name for himself after that first victory. He spent the winter in Cagnes-sur-mer, on the French Riviera, and thrived to take one of the few Listed races at that meeting, the Prix Policeman, by no less than four lengths.

That race he won at Cagnes is named after a horse who went on from there to capture the French Derby, the Prix du Jockey Club, back in 1980. Since then however, no Derby winner had followed such a path and Saonois’s triumph seemed not good enough to make anybody think that it would be any different this season. Jean-Pierre Gauvin ignored that and took the colt to Longchamp for the first of the French Derby prep races. Saonois obliged in first, then came fourth, but his fighting spirit was such that he convinced his connections to enter him in the Prix du Jockey Club.

That day at Chantilly, from a terrible 16 draw, it looked as if the bet was lost with a furlong to go, as Saonois was boxed in near the rail in the depths of a 20-strong field. Yet in his characteristic way, the little horse pushed his way through rivals and snatched the 1.4 million Euro prize, owners’ premiums included, beating the collective might of Godolphin, the Wertheimers and the Aga Khan in a dash.

After a summer break came another win in Longchamp’s Arc prep race, the G2 Prix Niel, his first attempt over 2,400 metres; there was the Al-Thani offer, the refusal from Treyve and Gauvin, and the payment of 100,000 Euro to supplement the colt in the 2012 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. On deep ground, Saonois was never going to give his best in Europe’s late season showpiece and our hero was eased to finish down the field.

Gauvin then announced that the LONGINES Hong Kong Cup was very much on the colt’s agenda. A last piece of work on Friday over Lyon-La Soie’s fibersand track boosted the connections’ confidence for the Hong Kong mission.

“It was a good gallop,” said Gauvin. We have opted for the Cup because 10 furlongs is his best trip. His rider Antoine Hamelin agrees with us on that. Saonois reminds me of 2009 HK Cup winner Vision d’Etat. The horse struggled a bit with the pace in the last bend but he came back on the other horses. All we need is a good pace and room for a fight.”

For the baker and the former claimer, Hong Kong could be that fairytale city where the dream journey reaches a golden reality.

[my miss storm cat]

Random stuff...

Carlton House is, of course, owned by the Queen will be transfered to another Queen, Gai Waterhouse, after his run in the Cup. This is her first runner in HK and will be her first to be trained in Australia.

Anyone remember Steinbeck? I know he had a thread here long ago. He is now Pure Champion.

If anyone is a Dr. Zhivago fan (the man was only in like 120 movies but most people know this title), Omar Sharif the owner of Don Basco and I believe he's there already...

If you like rooting for the little guys Alcopop might be your horse. HIs owner was in to polo and had a horse he thought pretty fast, Iota of Luck. Anyway Alcopop and his best friend Miss Sea Siren flew over together so both are apparently pretty happy. Oh and he was sidelined for almost a year with a knee fracture so yeah for anyone who likes the Cinderella story kinda horse he is it.

Oh and just because this will be the 4th time in the Vase for Jaguar Mail (from Japan). He hasn't won in like the last 12 runs (since the 2010 Tenno Sho?) but gotta love him.

Two of the other runners from Japan, Grand Prix Boss and Sadamu Patek, have apparently shown some fatigue. Trainer John Moore is not happy (stables at Sha Tin are being renovated so the trainers have taken turns relocating temporarily and his turn falls right about now. For the record Packing Whiz is just fine with the chaos). Liberator likes his new blinkers, it rained 16 days last month which is unusual... Zac Purton has been on fire and ummm oh right the Vase! It's been won by French or English runners 15 of ther last 18 times. (There are only 3 locals in that one but I thought it was interesting).

And that's it and hooray cause I know you all are as excited as I am!

[Rileyoriley]

So far my picks are:

1.a Packing exacta box in the Mile

2. Feuerblitz in the Cup (i just saw an old episode of Hogan's Heroes and Schultz used a word similar to that. I took it as an omen.)

I'll have to either handicap the other 2 races or wait for another omen but I'll get back to you.

Ok after some semi-serious handicapping, I have my picks for the other 2 races.

3. Sprint- Super Easy, Sea Siren, and Time After Time (Decent Cindy Lauper tune) tri and ex. box

4. Vase- Sea Moon, Book 'em Dandino, and Dancing Rain (in honor of the new Massachusetts senator) tri and ex. box

[my miss storm cat]

Nice picks... good luck!

My only one so far is Xtension in the Mile.

I thought this was fun:

Excerpt from a blog by (THE) Steve Moran.

However, (trainer Jake) Stephens went on to say that Alcopop does not like Dunaden at all. 'He's not happy when that horse is nearby,' Stephens said referring to Dunaden.

So, maybe that indicates that Alcopop is intelligent and that somehow he knows that Dunaden is the horse who beat him in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup in Melbourne in October.

Ironically, Dunaden and Alcopop were the first two horses out on the track this morning - in the same order as they finished in the Caulfield race. Alcopop was well behaved but was just starting to appear a little irritated as he had to wait for jockey Craig Williams to finish galloping Dunaden before he could climb aboard Alcopop - on whom he won the Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington.

With too much contact between the visiting horses discouraged. for quarantine reasons, Williams was sprayed with some sort of disinfectant after riding Dunaden and before he mounted Alcopop.

Then again, maybe it was just to make sure that Alcopop didn't smell any trace of Dunaden on the jockey.

[my miss storm cat]

Replays, overseas contenders...

http://campaign.hkjc.com/en/2012-lon...rsearacereplay

ALL replays for locals on the hkjc site of course.

Barrier draw reaction, etc...

http://campaign.hkjc.com/en/2012-lon...gir-index.aspx


I was gonna list all 4 races but here's the link instead cause there is so much good stuff...

http://racing.hkjc.com/racing/Info/M.../20121209/ST/4


Wow R1,the Class 3 Paris H, is a really nice field. Little Cow, Affluance of Rain, etc. Very nice

The Peak in R6 is a nice one to keep an eye on too (not to bet... no odds but good horse).

Good luck to 9 year old Jamesina (in R3, the Tokyo H.) who loves being 9th (can we bet this?). He hasn't won since his three in a row back in 2009.

Race 9 is like the field of heartbreak. Poor Beauty Flash needs to call it a day, Penglai Xianzi should have been sooo good by now,good old Fay Fay and Able Speed, Fair Trade... very nice field of horses who just didn't live up to their potential.

[my miss storm cat]

HKJC:

CIRRUS DES AIGLES and SWEET ORANGE have been withdrawn from the LONGINES Hong Kong Cup

7/12/2012 15:42

CIRRUS DES AIGLES and SWEET ORANGE, declared starters in the LONGINES Hong Kong Cup to be conducted at Sha Tin Racecourse on Sunday, 9 December 2012, have been found to have a left fore tendon injury and lame right fore fetlock respectively. CIRRUS DES AIGLES and SWEET ORANGE have been withdrawn from the LONGINES

[my miss storm cat]

Yea for everyone being excited!

In the event anyone wants to watch the replay of California Memory winning (or the rest of course)...

http://racing.hkjc.com/racing/Info/M.../20121209/ST/8