Date posted February 1, 2010 | Posted by Michele Cullen | Filed under
Encosta de Lago,
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Staff Favourites Overnight in Hong Kong the world’s top equal rated sprinter Sacred Kingdom (Encosta de Lag0) showed just why he’s rated one of the best with an awesome display of sustained speed in the Centenary Sprint Cup-HKG1, the first leg of the Hong Kong Speed Series, at Sha Tin Racecourse.
The other feature on the Sha Tin card the Stewards’ Cup-HKG1, and it went to O’Reilly’s tough campaigner Fellowship and in doing so it denied the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile winner Good Ba Ba a historic hat-trick of mile victories when third.
Sacred Kingdom (ex Courtroom Sweetie by Zeditave), the punters’ elect in the 1000m sprint, was kept behind the early pace set by stablemate, Ultra Fantasy, before his rider Brett Prebble said go and the bay unleashed a brilliant turn of speed to claim the win in a very slick 55.37 seconds.
Speed king, Sacred Kingdom
”He’s like that,” Prebble told the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s website. “He’s a little lazy so I gave him three smacks to keep his mind on his job. He then lengthened good and his ability told in the end. He is the best sprinter in the world, after all.”
Ricky Yiu, who trained both the winner and the runner-up, Ultra Fantasy, said Sacred Kingdom’s next mission will be the Chairman’s Sprint Prize on 21 February after which he is keeping his options open.
“There are several races he can contest in Singapore, Dubai or even Japan,” he said. “We shall see how he goes in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize before making a decision.”
Yiu said runner-up Ultra Fantasy (ex Bellle Anglasie), also by Encosta de Lago giving the champion stallion the valuable quinella, ran above his best to hold the champion to three-quarters-of-a-length at the line.
John Moore, trainer of One World (Danehill Dancer) who finished a game third after chasing the leader from the start, said the horse did his best but really needs a longer trip to show his quality.
In the Stewards’ Cup-HKG1, Fellowship (ex Mystical Flight by Danzalion) lived up to the promise he showed last month when finishing third to Good Ba Ba (Lear Fan) in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile, giving jockey Zac Purton his first taste of Group 1 success in Hong Kong.
Worse than midfield in the early running, Fellowship made ground when swinging for home to be within striking distance. With 200m to run Purton asked the seven-year-old to sprint and Fellowship responded with his ears pinned back to hold off the fast-finishing Thumbs Up (Shinko King ex Regelle by Exploding Prospect) to win by a head.
Good Ba Ba (Elle Meme, by Zilzal) was third a further half-length away.
“I’ve been finishing second and third in Group 1 races so it is nice to win one for a change,” Purton told the Hong Kong Jockey Club website.
“I thought we had the race won some distance out but then he started to prick his ears when he heard the other horse coming and I had to shake him up a bit.”
Fellowship, like his trainer, Paul O’Sullivan, hails from New Zealand as does the runner-up. In a twist, O’Sullivan, wasn’t in Hong Kong he was back in New Zealand preparing for the local premier sale at Karaka said “I have said before he is a genuine Group horse but he kept running into an ultra fit Good Ba Ba,” he said. “He’s turned the tables this time.”
O’Sullivan said Fellowship will now be aimed at the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup on 14 March and the Champions Mile on 25 April.
“He has run close to many Group One horses so he deserves this. I couldn’t be happier as he has performed extremely well. Actually his bodyweight is the same as when he won the Cathay Pacific International Mile Trial. He is a big horse but luckily he had a clear run,” he added.
Sacred Kingdom was selected out of the William Inglis Premier yearling sale by Mr Yin where he paid $200,000 for him and the six-year-old has since won 14 races and more than $5.2million. He is the best preformed son of Courtroom Sweetie and hails from a good New Zealand family that’s also produced the Group 2 winners Love of Mary (by Zeditave) and Waikiki (by Crested Wave).
Fellowship, also sports the NZ suffix, is the best performed descendant for three generations of his female line and is one of O’Reilly’s 44 stakes winners world wide.
