Teaming with Blake Shinn in pursuit of more elite race success, Caspar Fownes hopes Galaxy Witness can defy stamina concerns and return to winning company with success in the HK$12 million Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) at Sha Tin on Sunday (26 February).<\/p>
Anointed as a future star while posting four successive wins from 1000m-1400m last season, Galaxy Witness has remained winless in seven subsequent attempts \u2013 a sequence containing four minor placings \u2013 but Fownes retains telling faith.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s certainly got the ability to mix it with that type of horse in the Four-Year-Old Classic series. He\u2019s definitely in that range \u2013 no problem \u2013 but now we just have to see if he runs out the trip strong,\u201d Fownes said as he bids for his first Hong Kong Classic Cup success since Green Birdie\u2019s 2008 triumph.<\/p>
Pointing to Galaxy Witness\u2019 surging fifth behind Voyage Bubble in a leader-dominated Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) on 29 January, Fownes said the Star Witness gelding\u2019s race-best last 400m sectional of 22.58s underlined building form.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s been racing really well. I hope he gets his chance. We\u2019ve got Blake Shinn coming into ride him. His last run was good with a nice closing sectional, which is want you want to see over the mile. Obviously, now to 1800 metres, it\u2019s a big test for us,\u201d Fownes said.<\/p>
Fownes and Shinn shared G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) victory with Sky Field in 2021.<\/p>
Galaxy Witness will jump from 11, while Voyage Bubble and Jamie Kah have drawn gate six. Tuchel (Zac Purton) has barrier one, alongside Keefy and Derek Leung in gate two. Sword Point will start from barrier 13 under Hugh Bowman, while Beautyverse has the extreme outside stall of 14 for James McDonald.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7915″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
In the midst of a stellar season with 24 wins so far, Manfred Man hopes Encountered can prove his quality under Silvestre de Sousa in the Hong Kong Classic Cup despite drawing barrier nine.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s a strong field in this race. If he can be fourth or fifth in the run that would be great,\u201d Man said of the Churchill gelding, who has won two of his past three starts at Happy Valley.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m not sure about 1800 metres at Sha Tin because of the long straight, but his form is very good and I hope he can run well again. He is racing well.\u201d<\/p>
The Hong Kong Classic Cup is the second leg of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series, which culminates with the HK$24 million BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) at Sha Tin on 19 March.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7914″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Golden Sixty and Romantic Warrior predictably dominate the line-up for this Sunday\u2019s HK$12 million G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m), marking the second time the BMW Hong Kong Derby winners have clashed.<\/p>
Golden Sixty took the honours at the pair\u2019s first encounter with a crushing display in the G1 Stewards\u2019 Cup (1600m) at Sha Tin on 29 January, but Vincent Ho and Francis Lui are acutely aware this weekend\u2019s 2000 metre assignment notionally tilts the scales towards Romantic Warrior, whose two Group 1 scalps \u2013 the FWD QEII Cup and LONGINES Hong Kong Cup \u2013 came in spectacular fashion at 2000m.<\/p>
The champion duo will face five other rivals on Sunday \u2013 Tourbillon Diamond, Ka Ying Star, Money Catcher, Glorious Dragon and Panfield.<\/p>
Summing up the magnitude of toppling Golden Sixty and Romantic Warrior, Glorious Dragon\u2019s trainer Pierre Ng said: \u201cCompared to Golden Sixty and Romantic Warrior, it\u2019s just about impossible (to beat them). We\u2019re hoping Glorious Dragon can run third or fourth and get some prizemoney.<\/p>
\u201cIf we can have a good run and run third and fourth, the owner will be very happy. He ran very well second up and hopefully this time he\u2019s fitter and I hope he can get closer to them.\u201d<\/p>
Sunday\u2019s (26 February) 10-race card at Sha Tin starts with the Class 4 Citi Global Wealth Handicap (1650m, dirt) at 1pm.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7913″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Teaming with Blake Shinn in pursuit of more elite race success, Caspar Fownes hopes Galaxy Witness can defy stamina concerns and return to winning company with success in the HK$12 million Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) at Sha Tin on Sunday (26 February).Anointed as a future star while posting four successive… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7910"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7910"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7917,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7910\/revisions\/7917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}