Ronald Arculli\u2019s connection to Hong Kong racing spans approximately six decades, and the former Chairman of The Hong Kong Jockey Club, alongside wife Johanna, can boost an already enviable ownership record when his defending champion returns at Sha Tin.<\/p>
Red Lion is one of Arculli\u2019s foremost gallopers, and the seven-year-old gelding is chasing a second consecutive HK$24 million G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) success on FWD Champions Day (Sunday, 26 April).<\/p>
Arculli, 87, served as Chairman from 2002-2006. He has raced more than 80 horses since the 1970s in Hong Kong as a sole owner, partner and in syndicates, with the 1993\/94 Triple Crown winner River Verdon \u2013 the first Hong Kong-trained horse to compete overseas in 1992 \u2013 his standout champion, co-owned by Sir Oswald Cheung.<\/p>
Arculli\u2019s other big-race wins in his home city, including the 1991 Hong Kong Derby (1800m), have come via River Jordan, River Dancer, Go-Getter, Red Cadeaux \u2013 winner of the 2012 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m) \u2013 and most recently Red Lion, who is bidding for a second Group 1 triumph when Andrea Atzeni hops up this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>
Atzeni said: \u201cHis most recent trial and the trial before his last run were good, but he just didn\u2019t run accordingly last start (14th in the G2 Chairman\u2019s Trophy, 1600m). John (Size) put blinkers on him in his last trial (on 16 April). He trialled well with them and, hopefully, we get a lot of rain. It\u2019s hard to know, and obviously, the track dries very quickly, too.<\/p>
\u201cAny rain is welcome \u2013 hopefully there\u2019s a bit of juice in the ground, and given a smooth run around, he could run very well.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”16377″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
The courageous Red Lion \u2013 trained by Australian Racing Hall of Famer Size \u2013 finished second in the 2024 FWD Champions Mile at odds of 29\/1 before his 89\/1 make-all victory over heavy favourite Voyage Bubble in 2025.<\/p>
\u201cI felt like in his trial when he had a bit of room and he\u2019s rolling along, that\u2019s when he\u2019s happy. It seems like he responds a bit better when he\u2019s to the outside,\u201d Atzeni said. \u201cI just feel like he doesn\u2019t like to be on the fence with horses surrounding him and that he needs his own space. He\u2019s quick out of the gates and the blinkers seem to work on him.\u201d<\/p>
Size is going for a sixth win in the race, having also prevailed with Electronic Unicorn (2003), Sight Winner (2009), Contentment (2017) and Beauty Eternal (2024).\u00a0<\/p>
Red Lion is one of two defending champions reappearing this weekend along with Ka Ying Rising, who is aiming to win a second HK$24 million G1 Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize (1200m). Fellow hometown hero Romantic Warrior is trying to land a record fourth HK$30 million G1 FWD QEII Cup (2000m) after triumphs in 2022, 2023 and 2024.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”16376″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Ronald Arculli\u2019s connection to Hong Kong racing spans approximately six decades, and the former Chairman of The Hong Kong Jockey Club, alongside wife Johanna, can boost an already enviable ownership record when his defending champion returns at Sha Tin.Red Lion is one of Arculli\u2019s foremost gallopers, and the seven-year-old gelding is… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":16378,"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-champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16375"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16375"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16414,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16375\/revisions\/16414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-champions-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}