The Hong Kong season still has another month to run but the Group racing ends on Sunday with the Premier Cup over 1,400m – a race which has launched some outstanding performers, including great miler Able One.
Ricky Yiu and Douglas Whyte will be hoping it does again, with Dundonnell appearing a prospect to become one of the better milers in Hong Kong next season, if he can relax better than he has as a four-year-old. He has been guilty of overracing and Yiu has experimented with 1,600m only once, with a poor result, but 1,400m is ideal, he has a light weight and Whyte making the effort to get down to it.
A double for Zac Purton on Thursday at the final Happy Valley meet for the season has put the jockeys’ championship to bed for the Australian, who now has his sights on Douglas Whyte’s 114-win record.
There is plenty of time to get the wins required and Purton probably offers the main danger to Dundonnell with Aerovelocity, who has won his last five over 1,200m but the jockey and trainer Paul O’Sullivan have always maintained that 1,400m will be his forte.
The second half of Purton’s book looks strong on Sunday, with his last four rides – Aerovelocity, Marvel Tribe, Golden Deer and Gorgeous Debut – all looking strong winning chances.
Golden Deer was one of the more impressive recent wins this season when he wore blinkers for the first time last start and bolted up in Class Four. He returns to Class Three now, where he had been racing well without threatening previously, but the blinkers appear to have transformed him.
Elsewhere, Hong kong eyes will be watching Glorious Days’ effort in the Yasuda Kinen, but the John Size-trained miler faces the world’s top rated horse, Just A Way, on his home soil.
By Nathan Mody
