Waikuku\u2019s storied career is expected to come to a close after Sunday\u2019s (30 April) HK$20 million G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin on FWD Champions Day.<\/p>
A fitting finale for the three-time Group 1 winner to bow out in, Waikuku\u2019s career will embrace one more confrontation with Golden Sixty \u2013 whose 16-win streak he famously halted in the 2022 G1 Stewards\u2019 Cup (1600m) under Zac Purton.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure this will be his last run. We will retire him after Sunday, so hopefully all goes well for him and then he can enjoy his retirement,\u201d Size said.<\/p>
The eight-time winner and earner of HK$47.06 million in Hong Kong, Waikuku also boasts wins over former champion Beauty Generation in the 2019 G2 Jockey Club Mile (1600m) and 2020 Stewards\u2019 Cup for Size, who will remember the Harbour Watch gelding\u2019s heroics fondly.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s been wonderful, he won three Group 1 races and he ran second in the Hong Kong Derby. It was one of those races that could have been more interesting for him, but he still acquitted himself very well and he always does,\u201d Size said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Waikuku prevails over Golden Sixty last season. <\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
While the hallmark of the eight-year-old\u2019s career became his giant-slaying ability, in 2019 he almost landed a BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) crown. The mastery of Size saw Waikuku overcome a sore foot in the lead-up to the race, only to finish a brave second behind Furore.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019ll give whatever he\u2019s got, he\u2019ll run his best and he\u2019ll get a nice run in the race \u2013 he\u2019ll be fourth or fifth one off the fence and the acceleration of the good ones will be superior, but hopefully he gets around safely and enjoys the rest of his life,\u201d Size said.<\/p>
Along with a pair of Stewards\u2019 Cup wins in 2020 and 2022, Waikuku\u2019s other top-level triumph came in the 2021 G1 Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m).<\/p>
Waikuku is part of a three-pronged assault for Size on Sunday\u2019s HK$65 million FWD Champions Day feature races with Sight Success and Courier Wonder representing the 11-time Hong Kong Champion Trainer in the HK$20 million G1 Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize (1200m).<\/p>
Sight Success has placed twice at Group 1 level this season in Hong Kong.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s got some speed; he\u2019ll go forward from there and Master Eight will probably go with him or in front of him. These races on the weekend, they\u2019re all small fields and there\u2019s always some tactics involved but the gate\u2019s not as important compared to when you have 14 runners,\u201d Size said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Sight Success holds on for second behind Wellington in December.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Sight Success has continued to improve this season, finishing second in the 2022 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) before winning January\u2019s G3 Bauhinia Sprint Trophy Handicap (1000m).<\/p>
\u201cHe helps himself a lot and the jockeys are always very complimentary about his performances and his attitude. He always gives whatever he has in the tank, he\u2019ll give it for the riders and his consistency has been very good. Hopefully one day that pays off for him with a lucky win somewhere,\u201d Size said.<\/p>
Sight Success will be ridden by James McDonald first-up following the horse\u2019s courageous fourth in March\u2019s G1 Al Quoz Sprint (1200m) at Meydan in Dubai, while Courier Wonder pairs with Hugh Bowman. \u00a0<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s (Courier Wonder) been running well and he didn\u2019t have much luck in the run last start. It was a bit of an awkward race for him and he wasn\u2019t able to perform but his previous couple of starts were very encouraging and hopefully he can run into some prize money as well,\u201d Size said.<\/p>
Courier Wonder had a setback last year but did show tremendous ability early doors, winning his first five races before placing at Group 1 level.<\/p>
\u201cHe has plenty of pace but he doesn\u2019t manage himself correctly now that he\u2019s come up in class. His first five starts were too easy for him. He didn\u2019t actually learn how to race properly and then when he went into proper competition against his equals, he had to develop a racing style which didn\u2019t come naturally to him.<\/p>
\u201cHe had to be trained and governed that way, to teach him how to use his energy properly and to his credit he appeared in the (2022) Hong Kong Sprint to run a very good fourth as a 100\/1 chance and that was his true form that we were hoping he\u2019d get to,\u201d Size said.<\/p>
Courier Wonder and Sight Success will step away from gates four and one, respectively.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s shown his true ability but similar to Sight Success, he needs a bit of luck to grab the major end of the prize,\u201d Size said.<\/p>
Sunday\u2019s (30 April) 10-race FWD Champions Day fixture kicks off at 12.45pm with the Class 4 FWD Insurance Goahead Group Handicap (2000m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”20215″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Waikuku\u2019s storied career is expected to come to a close after Sunday\u2019s (30 April) HK$20 million G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin on FWD Champions Day.A fitting finale for the three-time Group 1 winner to bow out in, Waikuku\u2019s career will embrace one more confrontation with Golden Sixty \u2013… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":20214,"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\/20211"}],"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=20211"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20228,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20211\/revisions\/20228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}