The first test of the standard of the field at this year’s Dubai Turf and the Dubai Sheema Classic takes place in Hong Kong on Sunday when Mike de Kock’s Ertijaal and Aidan O’Brien’s Highland Reel take their chance in the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup in Hong Kong.
Ertijaal ran four times during the World Cup Carnival in a mixed campaign that culminated in a fourth-placed finish to Japanese raider Reel Steel in the Dubai Turf at Meydan last month.
Just 35 minutes later, Highland Reel was fourth to Postponed in the Sheema Classic under Sunday’s rider Ryan Moore and the two horses form part of a six-horse raiding party on the 2,000-metre Group 1 contest that is staged for the 42nd time at Sha Tin.
Ertijaal has been dealt a poor hand, having been drawn in stall 11 of 13 at the tight racecourse with the inner strip of ground thought by horsemen to be faster. Further heavy rain is also forecast, and the son of Hard Spun is not expected to relish the downpour.
Connections are upbeat, however, and Douglas Whyte, who was on board at Meydan for the first time, applied the gloss to his hulking four-year-old partner on the turf track on Friday under the watchful eye of De Kock’s assistant Trevor Brown.
“His weight remains spot on and we are very happy about that,” Brown told the Hong Kong Jockey Club. “He had his final work and Dougie gave me a lot of confidence. He also isn’t concerned with the draw in 11.”
The seven Hong Kong horses are led by last season’s winner Blazing Speed and the John Moore pair of Designs On Rome, the 2014 winner and last year’s fourth, and Werther, last month’s Hong Kong Derby winner.
Moore also runs Helene Super Star, who is better known in the UAE as Lines Of Battle, the 2013 UAE Derby winner.
Moore does not expect the forecast deluge to be a problem for his trio.
“There should be a bit of sap in the ground and if it rained on the day that would be perfect,” he said. “Werther, he’s a New Zealand horse and he handles all surfaces, Helene Happy Star won the Queen Mother last year on wet ground and Designs On Rome, any cushion will help.”
Japan, who raided Hong Kong in December with Maurice and A Shin Hikari, have once again put together a fearsome challenge, with dual Grade One winner Lovely Day considered the most likely to add to Japan’s three previous wins in the $HK20million (Dh9.5m) event.
The mare Nuovo Record adds interest but Satono Crown won the Grade Two Kyoto Kinen in February on a yielding surface and Zac Purton’s mount will relish the drop back in distance and could be a real threat.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid’s momentum in Europe kept rolling in Toulouse on Friday night when his exciting Purebred Arabian Muraaqib won the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup under Francois-Xavier Bertras at the French racecourse.
The Prix Carthage, a HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Festival race, is the opening leg of the European Triple Crown series.
Muraaqib, a four-year-old son of Munjiz, added the Group 2 race to his brace of Group 1 wins last season by beating Karin van den Bos’s runner Lightning Bolt.
Sir Bani Yas, owned by President Khalifa bin Zayed, was edged out for third ahead of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed’s Ziyadd.
Also on the card Yasmine Nilsson, a 22-year-old Swedish checkout worker, booked her ticket to Abu Dhabi in November when she guided Al Shaqab’s Laft Nethar to land the HH Sheikh Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship race.
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