Having won the G1 Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup three times in the past five years, Zac Purton will be chasing his fifth title in this second leg of the Hong Kong Speed Series atop California Spangle on Sunday (19 March) at Sha Tin.<\/p>
The HK$12 million G1 Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m) precedes the BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) and draws together an elite field of horses and jockeys featuring Wellington (Ryan Moore), California Spangle (Purton), Lucky Sweynesse (James McDonald), Waikuku (Damian Lane) and Courier Wonder (Blake Shinn).<\/p>
Purton, who has won Group 1s on California Spangle, Lucky Sweynesse and Waikuku, has opted to ride 2022 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (1600m) winner California Spangle in what shapes as a high-stakes tactical battle.<\/p>
\u201cIt was really hard (to choose between California Spangle and Lucky Sweynesse). Obviously, Lucky Sweynesse is on the way up and it\u2019s hard to know where his ceiling is at the moment. He might have a little improvement there,\u201d Purton said.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s unbeaten at the distance, albeit at a lesser grade and he\u2019s airborne. He\u2019s going really well so, it\u2019s very hard to choose between the two. I just felt the Golden Sixty form was probably the best form in Hong Kong and I know my bloke is going to be very strong at 1400m, coming back from the mile.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
California Spangle denies Golden Sixty in the 2022 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile. <\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Purton expects Tony Cruz\u2019s stable flagbearer to take up his customary leading role.<\/p>
\u201cI think it\u2019s pretty predictable,\u201d Purton said. \u201cI think all the horses in this race are well established in their patterns and my bloke is going to take it up. I just throw the reins at him and let him go at whatever speed he wants to go. He can work it out – he\u2019s a smart horse.<\/p>
\u201cI think every horse will get their chance.<\/p>
\u201cI love the horse (California Spangle). He\u2019s been my favourite horse, the last 18 months and I always enjoy riding him. It\u2019s a privilege to be on his back and hopefully we can get another win on the board with him.\u201d<\/p>
Sunday\u2019s (19 March) meeting at Sha Tin starts with the Class 4 Sky Darci Handicap (1200m) at 1pm.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”8252″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Having won the G1 Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup three times in the past five years, Zac Purton will be chasing his fifth title in this second leg of the Hong Kong Speed Series atop California Spangle on Sunday (19 March) at Sha Tin.The HK$12 million G1 Queen\u2019s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m)… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":8253,"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\/queens-silver-jubilee-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8249"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/queens-silver-jubilee-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/queens-silver-jubilee-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/queens-silver-jubilee-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/queens-silver-jubilee-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8249"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/queens-silver-jubilee-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8268,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/queens-silver-jubilee-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8249\/revisions\/8268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/queens-silver-jubilee-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/queens-silver-jubilee-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/queens-silver-jubilee-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/queens-silver-jubilee-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}