It’s ‘stayer season’ in Hong Kong, with two of the three 2,400m races on the calendar run each May and the first of them is the Queen Mother Memorial Cup on Saturday.
This is a Group Three handicap, unlike the Group One Champions & Chater Cup at the end of May which will attract some of the top horses like Designs On Rome and Blazing Speed under set weights conditions, so the Queen Mother Cup is often a stepping stone into that race.
It’s a distance that most Hong Kong horses never see so it is always interesting to try to line up the form from the shorter races and this year the Derby form is being well represented in the Cup, with Thunder Fantasy, Got Fly and Helene Happy Star all coming through the classic to take on the open stayers.
The last two winners, Bubble Chic and Dominant carried good weights to win but the race has more often been won by light weighted runners.
That makes John Moore-trained Savvy Nature, with Joao Moreira aboard, and Renaissance Art from the Caspar Fownes yard very interesting runners. Both look likely to run out the distance and have fly weights on board.
Champion jockey Zac Purton is back after missing a second midweek meeting on Wednesday through complications to recent treatment for kidney stones.
Moreira is closing in fast on Douglas Whyte’s season record total of 114 wins, needing five more and could conceivably get it this week. Purton’s season has lost momentum with health issues and he will be keen to pick things up again with his best Rouge Et Blanc in the second race.
A jockey worth following on Saturday is the Mauritian Magician, Karis Teetan, who should offer punters some value with winning chances in Wayfoong Express, Grand Plus, E-Super, So Caffe, Travel First and Colourful Profit.
By Nathan Mody
