Hong Kong Racing Excels on the International Stage
Every sport, regardless of pursuit, is united by a common theme - the forbidding challenge of success away from home, especially on the international stage.
Thousands of well-credentialled athletes, from golfers to Grand Slam tennis champions to Tour de France cycling winners, have floundered in unfamiliar surrounds despite a ranking, reputation or resume that might suggest success anywhere, anytime, would be a fait accompli.
The glorious uncertainty of sport is one of its great drawcards - and horse racing is no different.
In that context, the performance of Hong Kong’s equine athletes this season on the international stage has been simply breathtaking.
When California Spangle’s (加州星球) form dipped early this season with four successive defeats, his future as a Group 1 contender and thoughts of an overseas campaign - outside of the faith of his connections - were widely considered dubious.
Trainer Tony Cruz and Brenton Avdulla scuttled the first of the ill-founded notions with victory in the G1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) at Sha Tin on 10 March, and then set about addressing the second with a trip to the Middle East.
Fast forward to 30 March and an unforgettable night in Dubai where California Spangle defied the tyranny of distance and ran rivals from around the globe ragged to win the G1 Al Quoz Sprint (1200m) in track record time on World Cup night.
For even someone as decorated as trainer Tony Cruz, the significance of this victory was immense.
“It means everything. Every trainer in their career has to win big races elsewhere - it’s part of your job,” Cruz said, dedicating the win to the Owner, the late Howard Liang and his family. “You’ve got to achieve something great in your life and you’ve got to win the big races, not just the small ones.”
Like Cruz, while Danny Shum loves winning every race possible in Hong Kong, he also craves the challenge of competing abroad.
Having been tutored by Ivan Allan, one of the canniest trainers to ever saddle a horse, Shum has proved incredibly accurate with his targeting of some of the world’s most lucrative races, striking with Little Bridge (小橋 流水) in the G1 King’s Stand Stakes (1000m) at Royal Ascot in 2012, before securing victory in the Group 1 W. S. Cox Plate (2040m) at Melbourne’s Moonee Valley last October.
“It has big meaning for me as a trainer. It makes me happy. I’m more happy than I can tell you,” Shum said after Romantic Warrior (浪漫勇士) became the first Hong Kong horse to win Australasia’s most prized weight-for-age race. “He (Romantic Warrior) overcame all the challenges and difficulties.”
Undeterred by feed issues, stringent quarantine and the contours of Moonee Valley’s tight, undulating circuit, Shum again proved his wares on the international stage as one of the sport’s sharpest minds.
Together, Cruz and Shum have shone the brightest light on the quality of Hong Kong’s horse population which, although comprising just 0.08% of the world’s thoroughbred number, continues to excel - and in the toughest arena of the lot.
Judged against any other sport, Hong Kong racing’s strike rate against the best of the best is impressive - a situation which reflects positively on the city’s racing community.