Vincent Ho worked Little Paradise under the cover of darkness on Tuesday morning (24 February) at Sha Tin and the leg-stretch was much to the local ace\u2019s delight in preparation for Sunday\u2019s (1 March) HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m).<\/p>
Forming part of a big-race double-header at Sha Tin alongside the HK$13 million G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m), the Hong Kong Classic Cup is the middle leg of the three-race Four-Year-Old Classic Series, which culminates with the HK$26 million 149th BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) on 22 March.<\/p>
Ho, who has won the Hong Kong Classic Cup twice with Golden Sixty (2020) and Super Sunny Sing (2023), said: \u201cI\u2019m happy with him (Little Paradise) \u2013 he felt good. He\u2019s ready and I am ready \u2013 we\u2019re looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>
Little Paradise blitzed the HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) \u2013 the first leg of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series \u2013 on 1 February by two lengths after overcoming trouble in the home straight to secure Jimmy Ting\u2019s biggest win as a trainer.<\/p>
Discussing the continued rises in distance across the remaining legs, Ho said: \u201cEven 2000 metres is no problem. He\u2019s so gentle in the mornings \u2013 he\u2019s not a problem at all.\u201d<\/p>
Little Paradise has won six times from nine outings, and clocked 52.7s (28.3, 24.4) alongside stablemate Perfecto Moments at Sha Tin yesterday morning.<\/p>
If successful in Sunday\u2019s Hong Kong Classic Cup, Little Paradise would then have the opportunity to match the feats of all-time greats Rapper Dragon (2017) and Golden Sixty (2020) by winning all three legs of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Little Paradise wins the Hong Kong Classic Mile.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Caspar Fownes was beaming at Sha Tin on Tuesday morning (24 February) following the announcement that Joao Moreira will return to Hong Kong as his stable rider.<\/p>
Moreira, a four-time Hong Kong Champion Jockey (2014\/15, 2015\/16, 2016\/17 & 2020\/21) with 1,235 winners in Hong Kong, linked with Fownes to scoop the 2021 BMW Hong Kong Derby aboard Sky Darci.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s (Moreira\u2019s return) something I\u2019m very happy that\u2019s going to happen. He starts up in the first week of April, and it\u2019s going to be great for Hong Kong racing to have him back in action here. I\u2019m very happy that I\u2019ve got him as my stable jockey,\u201d Fownes said.<\/p>
\u201cHopefully, we can have some fun together \u2013 that\u2019s most important \u2013 and win lots of races. I\u2019m sure the fans will be happy to have him back here.\u201d<\/p>
Leading the trainers\u2019 championship on 36 wins, Fownes takes seven runners to tonight\u2019s (Wednesday, 25 February) fixture at Happy Valley, including three-year-old Love Together (132lb) in the second section of the Class 3 Wan Chai Gap Handicap (1200m).\u00a0<\/p>
Fownes said: \u201cAll of his runs have been at 1000 (metres), and he\u2019s performed well for a horse only in his first season. Unfortunately, he\u2019s drawn awkwardly (gate nine), so I\u2019ll have to go through the speed map as to whether I want to go forward or back with him because he\u2019s quite versatile.<\/p>
\u201cThe horse is in good condition. He\u2019s ready to go to the races again, and you would think on the way he is performing that he would be competitive in this race.\u201d<\/p>
Wednesday\u2019s (25 February) nine-race fixture at Happy Valley begins at 6.40pm with the Class 5 Bowen Handicap (1200m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”14436″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Vincent Ho worked Little Paradise under the cover of darkness on Tuesday morning (24 February) at Sha Tin and the leg-stretch was much to the local ace\u2019s delight in preparation for Sunday\u2019s (1 March) HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m).Forming part of a big-race double-header at Sha Tin alongside the… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":14437,"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\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14435"}],"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=14435"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14446,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14435\/revisions\/14446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-4yo-series\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}