Bidding for a fourth G2 Chairman\u2019s Trophy (1600m) victory at Sha Tin on Sunday (9 April), Tony Cruz will cautiously monitor weather conditions as he tackles the HK$5 million feature with California Spangle and Beauty Joy.<\/p>
As rain swept over Sha Tin yesterday (Monday, 3 April), Cruz is hopeful conditions improve by the weekend, conceding he is unsure how his star pair would cope away from good or fast ground.<\/p>
\u201cThe going is a bit of a question mark for both my horses. I trialled California Spangle on the dirt track when it was rain-affected and he seemed to perform on it but, then again, we don\u2019t know until we run on it.<\/p>
\u201cLet\u2019s see what the going is going to be. Last weekend, the ground was giving. The times were slow, the track seemed to be running slow. The sting is definitely out of the ground,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>
Aiming to add to his G2 Chairman\u2019s Trophy haul following previous victories by Bullish Luck (2005) and Beauty Only (2016 and 2018), Cruz will adopt familiar tactics with G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) winner California Spangle.<\/p>
\u201cRegardless of the weather and the going, I think he\u2019s going to do the same thing \u2013 go to the front and lead the race,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>
Runner-up to Lucky Sweynesse in the G1 Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) on 19 March, California Spangle has been entered for the G1 Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize (1200m) and the G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) on 30 April, but Cruz is leaning towards the latter.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019ll probably go for the Mile,\u201d he said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”18573″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
With triple G1-winner Waikuku prominent among the nine entries for the Chairman\u2019s Trophy, Cruz rates California Spangle\u2019s stablemate Beauty Joy as one of the hardest horses to beat.<\/p>
\u201cI don\u2019t know exactly how Beauty Joy will go on rain-affected ground, but I think he is going to be strong opposition to California Spangle. I\u2019m very happy with his condition,\u201d Cruz said.<\/p>
John Size has entered Waikuku and Running Glory, Frankie Lor is represented by Money Catcher and Healthy Happy, Danny Shum has nominated Tourbillon Diamond and Caspar Fownes has entered Columbus County.<\/p>
Cruz has Whizz Kid among the seven HK$5 million G2 Sprint Cup (1200m) entrants this Sunday, headed by Lucky Sweynesse, Wellington, Courier Wonder, Cordyceps Six, Master Eight and Rewarding Together.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019ll be happy if he gets a place \u2013 you don\u2019t know how the going is going to be, but he needs to run,\u201d Cruz said of the five-time Hong Kong winner, who is yet succeed beyond 1000m.<\/p>
Hong Kong racing continues at Happy Valley on Thursday (6 April).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”18572″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Bidding for a fourth G2 Chairman\u2019s Trophy (1600m) victory at Sha Tin on Sunday (9 April), Tony Cruz will cautiously monitor weather conditions as he tackles the HK$5 million feature with California Spangle and Beauty Joy.As rain swept over Sha Tin yesterday (Monday, 3 April), Cruz is hopeful conditions improve by… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":18574,"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\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18571"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18571"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18580,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18571\/revisions\/18580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}