Five rivals stand in the way of Romantic Warrior\u2019s Triple Crown bid when Sunday\u2019s (1 March) HK$13 million G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) jumps at Sha Tin, including Mark Newnham\u2019s quality talent My Wish, who links with Hugh Bowman.\u00a0<\/p>
A star of his four-year-old class last season, My Wish returned in a big way this campaign by reeling off two wins in his first two appearances \u2013 G3 Celebration Cup Handicap (1400m) and G2 Sha Tin Trophy Handicap (1600m), before two midfield finishes in Group 1 contests over the mile.<\/p>
This weekend\u2019s challenge \u2013 which also sees Voyage Bubble, Beauty Joy, Ensued and Winning Wing entered to run \u2013 marks My Wish\u2019s first run over the trip since the 2025 HK$26 million BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) when he missed by a short-head to Cap Ferrat after rocketing home from the back of the field.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s certainly on the way up \u2013 his age and form suggest that. I think he\u2019s probably still got some physical maturing to do, but in saying that, he\u2019s come a long way in the last 12 months and his best is probably still ahead of him,\u201d Bowman said.<\/p>
Bowman, who won the Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup in 2017 with champion Werther, rode My Wish in a turf trial at Sha Tin on 20 February, clocking a hard-held 1m 38.84s, behind Voyage Bubble and Romantic Warrior, first and second in that practice hit-out.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
My Wish trials at Sha Tin earlier this month.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
\u201cI\u2019ve only sat on him once in a trial, but I was really pleased with him. He\u2019s performed well at the distance before, and there\u2019s no hiding the fact there is some very strong opposition to tackle, but I think he\u2019ll certainly make his presence felt,\u201d Bowman said.<\/p>
Sunday\u2019s fixture also sees the running of the HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) \u2013 leg two of the three-race Four-Year-Old Classic Series \u2013 where Bowman reunites with Newnham\u2019s four-time winner Invincible Ibis.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cNot much went his way from an awkward barrier (11) in the Classic Mile. I think there\u2019s still certain queries about him from a stamina point of view, but he\u2019s certainly got the class \u2013 he\u2019s proven that, and with a more economical run in the Classic Cup, I\u2019d like to think that he can finish a bit closer,\u201d Bowman said.<\/p>
Invincible Ibis, who started as favourite, was sixth in the HK$13 million Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) behind Little Paradise. Newnham, who is preparing for a big weekend at Sha Tin, has also entered Infinite Resolve and Lucky Sam Gor to run in the Hong Kong Classic Cup, while Aerodynamics is currently first reserve.\u00a0<\/p>
Bowman previously won the Hong Kong Classic Cup with Helios Express (2024).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”8400″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Five rivals stand in the way of Romantic Warrior\u2019s Triple Crown bid when Sunday\u2019s (1 March) HK$13 million G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) jumps at Sha Tin, including Mark Newnham\u2019s quality talent My Wish, who links with Hugh Bowman.\u00a0A star of his four-year-old class last season, My Wish returned… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":8402,"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-citi-hkgold-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8398"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-citi-hkgold-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-citi-hkgold-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-citi-hkgold-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-citi-hkgold-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8398"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-citi-hkgold-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8406,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-citi-hkgold-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8398\/revisions\/8406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-citi-hkgold-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-citi-hkgold-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-citi-hkgold-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-citi-hkgold-cup\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}