Little Paradise and Invincible Ibis remain locked on course for a HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) showdown on 1 February after the pair posted emphatic victories at Sha Tin on Sunday (11 January) as Zac Purton dominated with five wins.<\/p>
Little Paradise (122lb) crowned Purton\u2019s quintet and the eight-time champion Purton was effusive in his praise of the Toronado gelding after he earned a PPG bonus of HK$1 million with victory in the Class 2 Racing Club Cup Handicap (1400m) for Jimmy Ting, defeating Infinite Resolve (116lb) and Mid Winter Wind (117lb) in 1m 20.84s.<\/p>
\u201cIt was a really good effort. He\u2019s progressive, a lovely horse to ride. He relaxes nicely. It was a good, strong field. He ran a good time, he did a good job,\u201d said Purton, who has the choice of several Hong Kong Classic Mile rides, including Invincible Ibis and Beauty Bolt.<\/p>
Trainer Jimmy Ting is hopeful Purton will stay with Little Paradise in the Hong Kong Classic Mile after the classy four-year-old downed a string of older rivals.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s a very nice horse. After every race, he keeps improving. I\u2019ve always thought the mile would be the horse\u2019s best distance. He has been a bit keen before but now he\u2019s much more calm,\u201d Ting said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Little Paradise wins the Class 2 feature at Sha Tin.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Purton (59 wins) stretched his lead to 33 over Hugh Bowman (26) in a remarkable display of sustained excellence \u2013 and it could have been six wins had he not honoured a pledge to partner Beauty Bolt (134lb) in the Class 3 (Restricted) Pak Shek Au Handicap (1600m), only to finish to second to another of his regular rides, Invincible Ibis (135lb), who was partnered by Bowman.<\/p>
Bowman was impressed with Mark Newnham\u2019s rising star Invincible Ibis, who weaved his way into clear running after dropping to the tail of the field before finishing powerfully to defeat Beauty Bolt by a neck in 1m 34.18s.<\/p>
\u201cInvincible Ibis was very straight forward. I didn\u2019t expect to be so far back but I was reluctant to pressure him just to hold a position and he enjoyed being left alone,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cI was in a position \u2013 to avoid traffic \u2013 that I had to make a long run on him and he coped with that, too.<\/p>
\u201cAnd when I needed his effort at the 100 metres mark, he did it with consummate ease.\u201d<\/p>
Newnham said: \u201cHe\u2019s putting up quite a good record now and the nice part about the race was when it got a bit tough and he had to stretch the last part to beat Beauty Bolt, he did. So, he\u2019s got good ability, but he\u2019s got good heart.<\/p>
\u201cYou can only keep winning and he\u2019s put four together now, so he goes there (Hong Kong Classic Mile) in good form.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”12612″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Newnham reclaimed top-spot in the trainers\u2019 championship from Caspar Fownes to lead with 30 wins to 29 when fellow four-year-old Lucky Sam Gor (116lb) defied his rivals to clinch the Class 3 Stanley Gap Handicap (1400m) under Matthew Poon.<\/p>
Apart from Little Paradise, Purton also struck aboard Ricky Yiu\u2019s Snowthorn (135lb) in the Class 5 Chek Keng Handicap (1200m), Pierre Ng\u2019s Majestic Valour (135lb) in the second section of the Class 4 Wu Kai Sha Handicap (1200m), Robot Star (127lb) for Manfred Man in the second section of the Class 4 Wu Kau Tang Handicap (1400m) and David Hayes\u2019 China Win (128lb) in the Class 4 Hebe Haven Handicap (1800m).<\/p>
\u201cRobot Star was good, he probably wants further \u2013 seven furlongs was a bit sharp for him \u2013 and he was good through the line, he was unexposed,\u201d Purton said.<\/p>
\u201cChina Win, he\u2019s not an easy horse to manage in the mornings \u2013 very, very difficult. The boys are doing a good job to manage him as well as they are and on a race day, he doesn\u2019t know what he wants to do in a race. One day, he wants to scream long, the next day he wants to drop out.<\/p>
\u201cBut when the penny drops, he\u2019ll turn into a handy enough stayer. It was a good effort \u2013 he had the race run to suit.\u201d<\/p>
Young Emperor (126lb) saluted at 67\/1 for David Eustace and Luke Ferraris in the Class 3 Hung Mui Kuk Handicap (1200m) before Money Catcher (117lb) turned back the clock for Frankie Lor and Derek Leung with his first win in three years with success in the Class 3 Pak Sha O Handicap (1800m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”12615″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Twice placed at Group 1 level, the eight-year-old finished third in the 2022 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m) behind Romantic Warrior and Danon The Kid, but had not won since his G3 January Cup Handicap (1800m) victory at Happy Valley in 2023.<\/p>
\u201cIt was worth the wait. When he came to Hong Kong, he kept placing and it was difficult to win. He won two races and after that, he was always close but did start to run some bad races and it allowed a drop down to Class 3,\u201d Lor said.<\/p>
The pace was quick, so he could come from behind and win for his patient owner. I\u2019m happy because he\u2019s an eight-year-old who can still win and it\u2019s great for the owner.\u201d<\/p>
Three-year-old Elite Golf (127lb) impressively won the first section of the Class 4 Wu Kai Sha Handicap (1200m) under Harry Bentley for Chris So, while Rezeki (128lb) notched his first win in Hong Kong for David Hall with success in the first section of the Class 4 Wu Kau Tang Handicap (1400m) under a perfect ride by Andrea Atzeni.<\/p>
Hong Kong racing continues at Happy Valley on Wednesday (14 January) with the running of the HK$4.2 million G3 January Cup Handicap (1800m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”12610″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Little Paradise and Invincible Ibis remain locked on course for a HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) showdown on 1 February after the pair posted emphatic victories at Sha Tin on Sunday (11 January) as Zac Purton dominated with five wins.Little Paradise (122lb) crowned Purton\u2019s quintet and the eight-time champion… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":12613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12608"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12608"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12616,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12608\/revisions\/12616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}