Date posted April 15, 2010 | Posted by Michele Cullen | Filed under
Premium Updates,
Racing and Breeding,
ZabeelThis year’s Audemars Piguet QE II Cup, sponsored for the 12th consecutive year by the master Swiss watchmakers, is an international Group 1 event scheduled to run on Sunday 25 April at Sha Tin, Hong Kong.
Originally named the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, the race was first run on sand over 1575 metres on 5 May 1975 to commemorate the visit to Hong Kong by Queen Elizabeth II and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip. The inaugural winner Nazakat, trained by H M Cheung and ridden by A K Cheam, was an outsider and its owner Mr and Mrs H T Barma received the Cup from Her Majesty after the race.
The Queen Elizabeth II Cup was open to international competition in 1995, when UAE representative Red Bishop was steered to victory by recently retired Irish jockey Michael Kinane.
In 1999, the Queen Elizabeth II Cup was accorded International Group 2 status by the International Cataloguing Standards Committee and secured its first ever sponsorship from world-known Swiss watchmakers Audemars Piguet. Hence, the race was renamed the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup with its huge prize money increase.
On 18 April 1999, Jim And Tonic partnered with Gerard Mosse to win the race by 2-1/2 on good to fast ground in 2 min 0.1 sec, setting a 2000m-turf course record that still remains unbroken today. The French raider then went on to snatch the International Group 1 Hong Kong Cup in December that year.
In 2001, the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup was promoted to international Group 1 with prize money increased again. Jim And Tonic competed in the race for the third time but was defeated by Silvano which was ridden by Andreas Suborics. This was the first and only win a German horse has scored in this race so far.
In 2002, the Cup gained inclusion in the World Racing Championships as the second leg of the series and from 2003 to 2005, the race was run as the first leg of the World Racing Championships.
In 2002 Eishin Preston from Japan finally completed a double in the Hong Kong International Races and the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup. After capturing the Hong Kong Mile in December 2001, the Japanese contender returned the following April to start in the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup. He kicked strongly in the straight and defeated another Japan contender Agnes Digital, victor of the 2001 Hong Kong Cup.
In 2003, Eishin Preston, with his regular partner Yuichi Fukunaga in the saddle, became the first and only horse to win the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup back to back, with Australian bred and champion Hong Kong mare Elegant Fashion finishing second under Gerard Mosse.
In 2005, another Australian bred won the race when Vengeance Of Rain with Anthony Delpech on board claimed the race from South African representative Greys Inn, another son of his sire Zabeel. The pair by the same sire set a record for the race in achieving a quinella. In December 2005, Vengeance Of Rain landed the Hong Kong Cup and was crowned champion of the World Racing Championship.
John Moore-trained Viva Pataca was steered by Michael Kinane to produce a brilliant turn of foot to beat two Group 1 winners - Vengeance Of Rain and Admire Moon who had prevailed in the Dubai Sheema Classic and the Dubai Duty Free at Nad Al Sheba less than a month earlier in 2007.
Last year, the Dubai Duty Free runner-up Presvis, trained at Newmarket by Luca Cumani, and ridden by Britain’s champion jockey Ryan Moore who had only arrived in Hong Kong a few hours before the meeting, raced to an authoritative win on a turf track, re-classified as yielding, for his first Group One success. This was also the first victory for a British raider in this event.
The event is staged at Sha Tin once again in two weeks time.
