Frankie Lor\u2019s dominance of Happy Valley\u2019s only Group race continued at the city circuit on Wednesday night (10 January) when Happy Together extended his startling progress with an emphatic win the HK$4.2 million G3 January Cup Handicap (1800m) under a facile Alexis Badel ride.<\/p>
Given a perfect run three pairs back on the fence, Happy Together provided Lor with his third January Cup triumph in six years after the previous success of Simply Brilliant (2019) \u2013 who was also partnered by Badel \u2013 and Money Catcher (2023).<\/p>
Happy Together comfortably (115lb) denied La City Blanche (115lb) by three-quarters of a length, with the same margin to Helene Feeling (117lb) in 1m 48.29s.<\/p>
Improving his record to four wins from five starts since joining Lor\u2019s stable from Richard Gibson, who retired as a Hong Kong trainer at the end of last season, Happy Together has risen this campaign from Class 3 company and a rating of 73 to a Group 3 victor.<\/p>
Badel said: \u201cHe\u2019s a great horse, he\u2019s got a lot of personality \u2013 I really like him. He\u2019s got a great turn of foot, he\u2019s got ability. I had a great barrier (three), I just tried to put him asleep on the rail. The pace was even and comfortable for everyone, I thought.<\/p>
\u201cI just had a look at the last corner to find a way out. I managed to get my way around them and he won brilliantly.\u201d<\/p>
Reflecting on the bitter-sweet recollections of Simply Brilliant\u2019s triumph in 2019 which delivered the Frenchman\u2019s first Hong Kong Group score, Badel said: \u201cA lot of memories, I remember it just like it was yesterday. I broke my wrist after the line, I fell off so there were a lot of ups and downs but Hong Kong is always full of surprises and I\u2019m glad that I won this race again for him (Lor).\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Happy Together wins the January Cup.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Lor said: \u201cI like this race \u2013 I\u2019ve won it three times. He\u2019s (Happy Together) been great and I think he can still improve. Alexis knows this horse and what it takes for him to perform.\u201d<\/p>
Ellis Wong made an auspicious start to his Happy Valley career by slotting a win at the city circuit with only his second ride, triumphing aboard Lyrical Motion for Caspar Fownes in the first section of the Class 4 Great George Handicap (1200m).<\/p>
\u201cIt feels very special to have my first winner in Happy Valley,\u201d Wong, 23, said. \u201cThe horse drew a good barrier (five) and we just kept the position behind the leaders and he came away strong to win very easily.<\/p>
\u201cThis is very meaningful for me to get this win in Happy Valley (for Caspar Fownes) because he is the \u2018King of Happy Valley\u2019.\u201d<\/p>
Able to claim 10lb, Wong had ridden eight winners from 87 mounts at Sha Tin before being permitted to compete at Happy Valley and his display for Fownes delighted the four-time champion trainer.<\/p>
\u201cHe (Wong) gave him a beautiful ride. He didn\u2019t feel any pressure. It\u2019s good and it\u2019s a sign that he\u2019s got a cool head,\u201d Fownes said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a few things we can work on but he\u2019s getting there, so he\u2019ll gain a lot of confidence from this.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6567″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Ricky Yiu notched a treble to boost his tally for the season to 20 with the victories of Prime Minister, Mega Bonus and Simply Maverick.<\/p>
Luke Ferraris piloted Mega Bonus to an all-the-way win in the second section of the Class 4 Great George Handicap (1200m) after Yiu opened his account with Simply Maverick in the second section of the Class 4 Kingston Handicap (1650m). Ridden positively by Vincent Ho, the 1.3 favourite cruised to a two-length margin to snare his second win over the course and distance in three starts.<\/p>
Yiu capped a great night the Prime Minister\u2019s triumph in the Class 3 Cleveland Handicap (1800m) under Matthew Poon as Lyle Hewitson rode his first victory this season for Tony Cruz when Red Hare King claimed the first section of the Class 4 Kingston Handicap (1650m).<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019ve never had many rides for him until recently and it was actually this horse on (LONGINES) IJC (International Jockeys\u2019 Championship) night that he\u2019s started to support me,\u201d Hewitson said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to hit the board for him \u2013 I\u2019m very grateful.\u201d<\/p>
Francis Lui teamed with Andrea Atzeni in a breakthrough win with Modest Gentleman, who comfortably landed the Class 5 Paterson Handicap (1000m) to post his first Hong Kong victory at his 20th attempt before Hugh Bowman and Danny Shum combined successfully for the first time this campaign with Copartner Ambition in the Class 3 Causeway Handicap (1200m).<\/p>
Hong Kong racing continues at Sha Tin on Saturday (13 January).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6565″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Frankie Lor\u2019s dominance of Happy Valley\u2019s only Group race continued at the city circuit on Wednesday night (10 January) when Happy Together extended his startling progress with an emphatic win the HK$4.2 million G3 January Cup Handicap (1800m) under a facile Alexis Badel ride.Given a perfect run three pairs back on… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":6568,"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\/6563"}],"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=6563"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6569,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6563\/revisions\/6569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}