Gearing up to ride Healthy Happy in Sunday week\u2019s (20 February) HK$12 million G1 Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m), Harry Bentley is first looking to maintain the momentum of his mid-season surge when he engages a solid book of eight rides at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (9 February).\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m really, really happy with how things are going, the last two months have been a lot better for me \u2013 things have really picked up,\u201d Bentley said.<\/p>
With seven wins from the last 12 race meetings, Bentley is prospering in the challenging cauldron of Hong Kong racing \u2013 success that has been rewarded with the ride on Healthy Happy in the Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup \u2013 the world\u2019s richest race on turf over 1400m. \u00a0<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019ve built up a nice little association with Frankie Lor who has given me a good bit of support and things have definitely picked up \u2013 I\u2019m happy in the position that I am in at the moment,\u201d Bentley said.<\/p>
This season, Bentley has 13 wins in total and five in tandem with Lor \u2013 figures he is equally eager to build on.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m quite happy to pick him up (the ride on Healthy Happy), in this grade it\u2019s extremely competitive but he goes there with a reasonable chance,\u201d Bentley said.<\/p>
Healthy Happy is a four-time winner in Hong Kong from 11 starts \u2013 twice over 1400m.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7449″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Prior to Hong Kong, Bentley was well versed with experience abroad having ridden in France, Germany, Canada, the United States of America and notably the United Arab Emirates where he rose to prominence sealing numerous titles in Qatar.<\/p>
\u201cI think it\u2019s a culmination of things to be honest, you have to put in the work in the mornings and show your face but you\u2019ve also got to be on the ball with asking for rides and it\u2019s a matter of sometimes if you don\u2019t ask, you don\u2019t get.\u201d<\/p>
\u201cWhen your confidence is up, I think naturally you ride that little bit better, so it\u2019s a combination of a few things \u2013 I go through the races after the meeting, the next day and from there pick out what I would like to hop on,\u201d Bentley said.<\/p>
Contracted through till the end of the 2021\/22 season, Bentley boasts two Group 1 wins prior to his arrival \u2013 both times on crack sprinter Limato.<\/p>
\u201cEven though I\u2019m almost approaching a year here, I still feel like I\u2019m learning the ropes,\u201d the Englishman said.<\/p>
Looking to the midweek fixture at Happy Valley, Bentley hops aboard Ice Legend for Benno Yung \u2013 bidding for back-to-back wins in the first section of the Class 4 Penfold Park Handicap (1200m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Ice Legend gets off the mark in Hong Kong.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
\u201cI was very pleased with his victory last time out, the pace was quick and he finished very strongly,\u201d Bentley said. \u201cJust this time we\u2019ve drawn wide, but that\u2019s just the way things go, so we\u2019ll deal with that, but I\u2019ll be hoping for a strong pace \u2013 he\u2019s a strong finisher over 1200 metres.\u201d<\/p>
Ice Legend \u2013 a son of Whittington \u2013 is a one-time winner from six starts in Hong Kong.<\/p>
Later on the card \u2013 in the finale \u2013 Bentley hops aboard Invincible Missile for trainer Caspar Fownes in the Class 3 Victoria Park Handicap (1650m) \u2013 optimistic a stint away at Conghua has done wonders for the 71-rater.<\/p>
\u201cHe really does suit the Valley \u2013 James McDonald won on him there and he had a little break between runs, so when I rode him last start he felt like a fresh horse and I think having that freshen up at Conghua really helped him,\u201d Bentley said.<\/p>
Invincible Missile steps away from gate 10 against 11 others.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s a horse who comes from off the pace \u2013 he ran a mighty race last time but with the pace it was very slow and he had to make up ground which wasn\u2019t easy, but he still managed to finish third, so it was a very credible run,\u201d Bentley said.<\/p>
Bentley also rides Sky Gem, Noble Man, Tailor Made, Wins All, Diamond Brilliant and Lucky Archangel.<\/p>
Stoltz returns to the Valley<\/strong><\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7448″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Fresh off his win over 1000m at Happy Valley in course record time last month, Stoltz will return to the fray in tomorrow night\u2019s (Wednesday, 9 February) Class 3 Hong Kong Park Handicap (1000m) \u2013 looking to replicate or better yet enhance those heroics for trainer Francis Lui and jockey Zac Purton.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p> \u201cHe\u2019s still very fit, he\u2019s in-form \u2013 I hope he can keep going, he\u2019s done well,\u201d Lui said.<\/p> Stepping away from gate four, Stoltz (133lb) faces six opponents including Special M (128lb) and Like That (116lb) \u2013 rivals he conquered from the front last time out.<\/p> \u201cI was a little bit surprised, maybe the gear (changes) helped him that day,\u201d Lui of the 79-rater\u2019s 55.85s win last month.\u00a0<\/p> Later on the card, Purton hops aboard Party Warrior \u2013 also for Lui \u2013 in the Class 3 Kowloon Park Handicap (1200m).<\/p> \u201cHe\u2019s a nice horse but he might just need a little bit more time to get used to it all,\u201d Lui said.<\/p> Wednesday\u2019s (9 February) nine-race fixture at Happy Valley kicks off at 6.45pm with the Class 3 Hong Kong Park Handicap (1000m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7447″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Gearing up to ride Healthy Happy in Sunday week\u2019s (20 February) HK$12 million G1 Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m), Harry Bentley is first looking to maintain the momentum of his mid-season surge when he engages a solid book of eight rides at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (9 February).\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m really, really… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7450,"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\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7444"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7444"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7456,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7444\/revisions\/7456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/citi-hkgold-qsj\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}