The DBS x Manulife Million Challenge has ended in a tie for the second time in three seasons after Danny Shum\u2019s Copartner Ambition and David Hayes\u2019 Tomodachi Kokoroe shared series honours at Happy Valley on Wednesday (21 February).<\/p>
Decided on a format of 15 points for a win, six for second, four for third and three for third in Class 3 races and above from September until tonight, ultimate success in the series hinged on Copartner Ambition\u2019s performance in the Class 3 Sing Woo Handicap (1200m).<\/p>
Needing a win for outright victory after Tomodachi Kokoroe seized the lead with victory in the Class 1 Singapore Pools Handicap (1200m), Copartner Ambition finished second to Bon\u2019s A Pearla \u2013 which was sufficient for a share of the major prize.<\/p>
With three wins and a second each, Copartner Ambition and Tomodachi Kokoroe tallied 51 points, while Chill Chibi finished with 49 points with three wins and a third.<\/p>
The two sets of winning owners each collected bonuses of HK$675,000, while Chill Chibi earned HK$150,000 for his connections.<\/p>
Seemingly struggling at the 400m, Copartner Ambition\u2019s effort to pip Winning Icey by a short head for second place presented Shum with his fourth win in the series and left Hayes with his first.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m happy, very happy,\u201d Shum said. \u201cKeeping my owners happy, keeping my horses happy is a major part of my job. This horse has done a very good job. It\u2019s a long series, so it\u2019s good to win.\u201d<\/p>
It is the first tie in the Challenge since Fa Fa and Cheerful Days shared the honours with 60 points each in 2022.<\/p>
Shum previously scored with Speedy Longway (2015\/16), Charity Glory (2017\/18) and Grateful Heart (2020\/21) and his four wins matches that of Caspar Fownes.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Tomodachi Kokoroe edges out Bundle Of Charm.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Having watched Copartner Ambition draw level with Tomodachi Kokoroe, Hayes said: \u201cI thought we had it all to ourselves at the 400m. To come from Class 4 to winning in Class 1 in one season is a good effort by Tomodachi Kokoroe.\u201d<\/p>
The winner of six consecutive races in Queensland where he raced as Bank Bank Bank before export to Hong Kong, Tomodachi Kokoroe had risen from a 64 to 85 before tonight\u2019s success \u2013 which was his fourth from 14 Hong Kong starts.<\/p>
Shum completed the evening in style when Ka Ying Spirit blasted to victory in the Class 3 King Kwong Handicap (1000m) under Alfred Chan to post his fourth first-up win from six attempts.<\/p>
Teetan completed a brace on Fownes-trained Galvanic Class 4 Yik Yam Handicap (1650m) to take his tally of wins for the season to 49 wins \u2013 18 fewer than six-time Hong Kong champion Zac Purton.<\/p>
In one of the evening\u2019s highlights, Tony Cruz trained the first three across the line in the Class 3 Village Handicap (1650m) with only a nose and a short head separating Winning Dragon, ridden by Brenton Avdulla, from Lovero and Red Hare King, respectively.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6743″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Ricky Yiu-trained Mr Ascendency (119lb) claimed the Class 1 Shan Kwong Handicap (1650m) under Harry Bentley, downing Happy Together (134lb) and Nordic Dragon (122lb), notching his first win at the city circuit and third in Hong Kong.<\/p>
Formerly known as Rifleman, the gelding won twice in England for John & Thady Gosden before export to Hong Kong.<\/p>
\u201cI was well aware that even though it was only a seven-runner field that there was some quality in there and he was going to have to be on his A game to do the business,\u201d Bentley said. \u201cHis form speaks for itself, his last three runs.<\/p>
\u201cThe fact he had only 119 pounds on his back was a big advantage for him and I just feel like he\u2019s hit a bit of a purple patch with his form and we got a lovely run throughout the race \u2013 the pace was pretty sedate and we were able to just wind it up.\u201d<\/p>
Bentley completed a double with a ground-saving ride on Cruz\u2019s Serangoon in the Class 4 Yuk Sau Handicap (1800m).<\/p>
Lyle Hewitson produced a masterly front-running ride to score on Manfred Man\u2019s Golden Luck in the second section of the Class 4 Wang Tak Handicap (1200m) before Cody Mo and Matthew Poon combined with Happy Fat Cat in the first section of the Class 4 Wang Tak Handicap (1200m).<\/p>
Hong Kong racing continues on Sunday (25 February) with the running of the HK$13 million G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) at Sha Tin.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6741″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The DBS x Manulife Million Challenge has ended in a tie for the second time in three seasons after Danny Shum\u2019s Copartner Ambition and David Hayes\u2019 Tomodachi Kokoroe shared series honours at Happy Valley on Wednesday (21 February).Decided on a format of 15 points for a win, six for second, four… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":6744,"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\/6740"}],"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=6740"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6786,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6740\/revisions\/6786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}