Extending an extraordinary start to the season, Pierre Ng maintained his lead in the Hong Kong trainers\u2019 championship at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (13 December) when the second-season trainer struck with a winner for the 12th consecutive meeting.<\/p>
Leading the championship after 27 meetings with 32 victories \u2013 10 clear of Danny Shum (22) \u2013 Ng has saddled 20 winners from the past 12 fixtures as he delivers on a pre-season pledge to eclipse his debut season haul of 41 winners.<\/p>
\u201cWe don\u2019t think of the number of winners, we just keep our head down and keep going and we try to get as many winners as we can,\u201d Ng said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t set any targets, we just want to achieve, win races for the owners, get prize money for the stable and get more support for the future.<\/p>
\u201cThat\u2019s how the game is and that\u2019s how we\u2019re going to play it.\u201d<\/p>
Dragon Star, given a flawless front-running ride by Karis Teetan in the Class 4 Lam Tin Handicap (1650m), became Ng\u2019s latest winner as four-time Hong Kong champion trainer Caspar Fownes celebrated a double crowned by veteran Explosive Witness\u2019 drought-breaking victory in the Class 3 Choi Wan Handicap (1000m) for James McDonald.<\/p>
Both Teetan and McDonald slotted doubles as Zac Purton continued to lead the Hong Kong jockeys\u2019 championship with 39 wins \u2013 13 ahead of Teetan (26) \u2013 after the Australian\u2019s triumph on Benno Yung\u2019s Tourbillon Prince in the Class 3 Kowloon Bay Handicap (1650m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Explosive Witness surges away for James McDonald.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Famed as the \u2018King of the Valley\u2019 with a record 582 wins at the city circuit, Fownes has 19 wins overall for the campaign, but few of those successes have provided Fownes with as much as satisfaction as Explosive Witness, who won for the first time since his G3 Bauhinia Sprint Trophy Handicap (1000m) victory on 1 January, 2021.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s a nine-year-old but he\u2019s raced extremely well all season. Every run he\u2019s given us a great effort and he\u2019s certainly one horse who\u2019s deserved to get that win. We worked hard to get him there, we worked hard to maintain his fitness and present the horse in good form, so he was well deserving of that victory,\u201d Fownes said.<\/p>
Super Contented gave Fownes the first leg of his brace after prevailing in a tight finish to the Class 5 Sau Mau Ping Handicap (1650m) under Keagan De Melo, who has posted 10 wins for the campaign, with six of those victories coming at the Valley.<\/p>
McDonald closed the meeting with victory aboard Copartner Ambition in the Class 3 Jordan Valley Handicap (1200m) for Danny Shum \u2013 only three days after he and Shum teamed to land the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m) with Romantic Warrior.<\/p>
Brazen Beau three-year-old Golden Long provided Frankie Lor with his first winner since 11 November and ended a 55-run of outs for the 2021\/22 champion trainer with an authoritative win in the second section of the Class 4 Kwun Tong Handicap (1200m) under Matthew Chadwick.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s still a little bit green but he won the race well. He finished well and I hope he can be a really good horse,\u201d Lor said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Golden Long impresses on debut.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Samarkand made it two wins in a row with success in the Class 4 Ngau Chi Wan Handicap (1800m) for David Hayes and Jerry Chau. Carrying 127lb, the Mongolian Khan gelding again show his liking for Happy Valley with another brave performance.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s acclimatised now and I have a feeling he\u2019s that style of horse who really likes the Valley and can keep going through the classes because he\u2019s got tactical speed and that makes it easier,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>
\u201cWe\u2019ll race him around here and probably keep him to a mile. He can go 1800 (metres) but he\u2019s more impressive at the mile.\u201d<\/p>
Cody Mo and Luke Ferraris combined with Togepi, narrow winner of the first section of the Class 4 Kwun Tong Handicap (1200m) after Douglas Whyte\u2019s patience with Double Show was rewarded when the Showcasing gelding snared the Class 5 Ngau Tau Kok Handicap (1000m) under Teetan. Rated 25 after 25 winless starts across three seasons, the five-year-old finished stoutly for breakthrough success.<\/p>
Hong Kong racing continues at Sha Tin on Sunday (17 December).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6477″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Extending an extraordinary start to the season, Pierre Ng maintained his lead in the Hong Kong trainers\u2019 championship at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (13 December) when the second-season trainer struck with a winner for the 12th consecutive meeting.Leading the championship after 27 meetings with 32 victories \u2013 10 clear of… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":6473,"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\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6469"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6469"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6479,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6469\/revisions\/6479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}