BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) winner Voyage Bubble will put the form of this season\u2019s four-year-old crop to the test when he lines up in Sunday week\u2019s (30 April) HK$20 million G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin.<\/p>
The Four-Year-Old Classic Series plays an indispensable role in the rejuvenation of Hong Kong\u2019s talent pool and Voyage Bubble \u2013 victorious also in the Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) \u2013 will be the sole winning contender out of the series tried in one of the features on FWD Champions Day when he lines up against Golden Sixty, California Spangle and more.\u00a0<\/p>
Trainer Ricky Yiu is eager to see how his 103-rater fares, particularly with the belief that his charge continues to raise the bar each time he races.<\/p>
\u201cEnd of the month we\u2019re going to take on the big boys. He\u2019s the only four-year-old in the field and it\u2019ll be a very interesting race to watch,\u201d Yiu said.<\/p>
The Deep Field youngster edged out Drombeg Banner in a barrier trial over 1200m on dirt at Sha Tin this morning (Tuesday, 18 April), clocking 1m 09.93s with second and third finishers in the BMW Hong Kong Derby, respectively \u2013 Tuchel and Beauty Eternal \u2013 behind him.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s a smart horse \u2013 I\u2019m more than happy to see the way he trialled this morning. He continues to improve, he\u2019s only lightly raced and he\u2019s a four-year-old \u2013 I think he has a bright future,\u201d Yiu said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Voyage Bubble wins the BMW Hong Kong Derby.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Xtension (2011) was the last four-year-old to win the Champions Mile directly after running in the Hong Kong Derby where he finished in second position.\u00a0<\/p>
Voyage Bubble has five wins from 11 starts and HK$25.29 million in the bank.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m very happy with his trial, it was exciting, that\u2019s how I look at it. He understands the pace and whether they go quick or slow \u2013 he\u2019s very versatile, you can put him close, lead or somewhere midfield. He\u2019s learning more and more day by day,\u201d Yiu said.<\/p>
Jockey Alexis Badel returned equally as pleased following this morning\u2019s effort.<\/p>
\u201cIt was perfect, I was happy to take a sit on him. We\u2019re happy to see him relax, he doesn\u2019t have to lead all the way in every race and it was a good exercise,\u201d Badel said.<\/p>
Waikuku, Beauty Joy, Glorious Dragon and Healthy Happy also feature from Hong Kong, while Southern Hemisphere duo Aegon and My Oberon are poised to line-up.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine I will engage a speed battle between California Spangle and my horse. Voyage Bubble is obviously very versatile so he can face different scenarios, which is good to know.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s obviously a quality horse, he\u2019s not here for no reason. He\u2019s got a bright future, whether he can win this race against the top milers I don\u2019t know, but he\u2019s a talented horse so sooner or later he will knock on the door,\u201d Badel said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Voyage Bubble beats Drombeg Banner over the line this morning.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
John Size could chance both BMW Hong Kong Derby placegetters Beauty Eternal and Tuchel with a return to racing this season following their efforts at Sha Tin this morning.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cIt seemed normal to me, I\u2019ll see how they pull up but the trials looked fine to me. They\u2019ve had some time off after the Derby and we\u2019ll just go through the motions.<\/p>
\u201cWe\u2019ll see if they\u2019re ready to race and they\u2019re healthy enough to come back. I think they\u2019re all right, but you give them a trial and you see what sort of reaction you get from that,\u201d Size said.<\/p>
Beauty Eternal finished third under jockey Zac Purton in 1m 10.18s, while Tuchel closed off in fifth position under jockey Karis Teetan in 1m 10.27s. Golden Sixty clocked 1m 10.42s in the same trial.<\/p>
Purton heads to Happy Valley on Wednesday night (19 April) with seven rides out of a possible nine, including Magniac, who chases a first Hong Kong win in the second section of the Class 3 Ho Man Tin Handicap (1200m).\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cHe just hasn\u2019t quite been finishing his races off, which was the same last weekend, and in Australia when he had the quick back-up he seemed to do well. So, we\u2019ve sent him back to the races and let\u2019s see if it works here,\u201d Purton said.<\/p>
The three-year-old has placed three times in Hong Kong for trainer Jamie Richards after arriving in town as a three-time winner in Australia.<\/p>
Happy Valley\u2019s nine-race fixture on Wednesday (19 April) kicks off at 6.45pm with the Class 5 Tsim Sha Tsui Handicap (1800m). \u00a0<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”19046″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) winner Voyage Bubble will put the form of this season\u2019s four-year-old crop to the test when he lines up in Sunday week\u2019s (30 April) HK$20 million G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin.The Four-Year-Old Classic Series plays an indispensable role in the rejuvenation of Hong… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":19048,"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\/19044"}],"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=19044"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19064,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19044\/revisions\/19064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}