With so many opportunities throughout a racing calendar which stretches across the world, it has been only the very hardiest of Aidan O\u2019Brien\u2019s string which have been able to make an impact at the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (HKIR).<\/p>
Few visited more places than the magnificent Highland Reel, who signed off in 2017 with his second victory in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m) while Magic Wand, defeated by just a short head in the 2019 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m), had barely stopped during a year which saw her travel to Australia, America and the Gulf.<\/p>
The Irishman\u2019s three candidates this year have already demonstrated their hardiness and his strength appears to lie again in the Vase, a race he also claimed in 2020 with Mogul.<\/p>
Stone Age, a beautiful-looking son of the late super-sire Galileo, began the year as his stable\u2019s best contender for the G1 Derby (2405m) at Epsom and although it was not to work out there, he was a commendable third in the G1 Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (2000m) in New York just a month later and was still at the peak of his powers in last month\u2019s G1 Breeders\u2019 Cup Turf (2400m), throwing down a stern challenge before finding only Godolphin\u2019s Rebel\u2019s Romance too good.<\/p>
“We were delighted with him in the Breeders\u2019 Cup, he ran a very good race and had progressed from his previous run at Ascot,” O\u2019Brien said. “We\u2019ve been happy with everything we\u2019ve seen from him since then. It had been on my mind to go to Hong Kong since after the Breeders\u2019 Cup, we thought the track, trip and ground should all suit him fine, we\u2019re all looking forward to it.”<\/p>
As Stone Age is only three, the best could be yet to come, and O\u2019Brien continued: “We think and hope he will [stay in training], obviously we think he\u2019s progressing and he definitely could progress again from three to four.”<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Stone Age finishes second at Keeneland.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
It seems strange that his other runner in the race, Broome, has not been to Hong Kong already. Among the oldest in his stable at age six, the eight-time winner has been a bit slow from the gates this season, notably when sixth in the same Breeders\u2019 Cup contest as Stone Age, but recorded a valuable win in the G2 Hardwicke Stakes (2392m) at Royal Ascot in June.<\/p>
“We were very happy with his run in America, he was a bit slow away, got back a little bit and finished off very well,” O\u2019Brien said. “We had it in our heads that we might go to the Japan Cup (G1, 2400m), it just came maybe a week or two too early and that\u2019s why we waited. We were delighted to have the opportunity to come to Hong Kong with him. He\u2019s in good form and is a very good natured, very sound horse.”<\/p>
O\u2019Brien has never won the HK$34 million LONGINES Hong Kong Cup despite a few attempts and will be stepping Order Of Australia up to the 2000m trip. The five-year-old\u2019s biggest win came in the 2020 G1 Breeders\u2019 Cup Mile (1600m) and he followed that with sixth place behind Golden Sixty at this signature Sha Tin meeting.<\/p>
“He\u2019s been running all the time over a mile but we always thought stepping up over a mile and a quarter would improve him more,” O\u2019Brien said. “He\u2019s obviously by Australia and we\u2019re very happy with him, we\u2019ll see what happens on Sunday.<\/p>
“He has won over seven furlongs twice as well, so we kept him at a mile after the Breeders\u2019 Cup win, but we\u2019d think there\u2019s a pretty good chance that (2000m) will be fine.”<\/p>
All being well, O\u2019Brien will be in Hong Kong for Sunday\u2019s race but has plenty to occupy him at home in the interim in a season which has seen notable successes for his mighty stayer Kyprios and some bright young two-year-old talents headed by Auguste Rodin.<\/p>
The travelling human squad for his team includes fine former jump jockeys Dean Gallagher and Alan Crowe as well as Rachel Richardson, who was a promising young Flat rider in Britain. He seems hopeful that the horses will all put their best feet forward.<\/p>
“Obviously you need horses that don\u2019t mind travel, have experience and are still in good shape,” he said.<\/p>
It\u2019s a fantastic meeting, we speak to a lot of people who will tell you it\u2019s a great day. We always like to be involved and are delighted to be invited, especially for very competitive, high-class racing.”<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”34885″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]With so many opportunities throughout a racing calendar which stretches across the world, it has been only the very hardiest of Aidan O\u2019Brien\u2019s string which have been able to make an impact at the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (HKIR).Few visited more places than the magnificent Highland Reel, who signed off… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":34887,"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":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34875"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34875"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35040,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34875\/revisions\/35040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}