Down the years, Andre Fabre has proved himself a master at identifying the right horses to send to the HK$26 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m), boasting a remarkable record of three wins and five placed efforts from 15 starters, dating back to a victorious debut at the meeting with Borgia in 1999.<\/p>
Third in the G1 Prix de l\u2019Arc de Triomphe (2400m) on his most recent start, Sosie is arguably a match for any of his predecessors from the stable.<\/p>
Sosie has enjoyed a fine season, opening with a pair of Group 1 victories at short of his best trip when landing the G1 Prix Ganay (2100m) and the G1 Prix d\u2019Ispahan (1850m) back in the spring.<\/p>
Returning to 2400m after a midseason break, Sosie ran an eye-catching trial when second to Byzantine Dream in the G2 Prix Foy (2400m), form he reversed when third in the Prix de l\u2019Arc de Triomphe itself, leaving his old rival back in fifth, and edging a place on the podium at the expense of fellow LONGINES Hong Kong Vase contender Giavellotto.<\/p>
Both horses will be much more at home on the expected fast turf at Sha Tin on Sunday (14 December), and Fabre has been encouraged to head to Hong Kong by the way Sosie has maintained his form post-Arc.<\/p>
\u201cHe did a good piece of work at Saint-Cloud and since then he has done some canters,\u201d Fabre said. \u201cHe looks alright and they are happy with him in Hong Kong.\u201d<\/p>
Fabre celebrated his 80th birthday earlier this week, and victory for Sosie would make him the most successful trainer in LONGINES Hong Kong Vase history, edging ahead of Aidan O\u2019Brien should he claim a fourth success.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Sosie runs third in the 2025 Prix de l\u2019Arc de Triomphe.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
\u201cSosie looks a good fit for this race and he might stay in training next year, we\u2019ll see what Sunday brings,\u201d Fabre said.<\/p>
\u201cThe good ground should suit him and the track at Sha Tin is perfect for him. It\u2019s a very fair course and there is usually a strong pace so any horse should be able to show his best form there.\u201d<\/p>
The difficulty of maintaining form from Longchamp in October until Hong Kong in December is illustrated by the fact that only 25 horses have run both races in the same season since the LONGINES Hong Kong Vase achieved Group 1 status in 2000, a pool which has produced one winner and six placed horses.<\/p>
Six horses who finished in the first three in the Prix de l\u2019Arc de Triomphe have contested the LONGINES Hong Kong Vase this century \u2013 an advert in itself for the depth of this year\u2019s race \u2013 with Flintshire in 2014 upgrading his second place at Longchamp to a win at Sha Tin.<\/p>
Sosie is owned by his breeders, Alain and Gerard Wertheimer \u2013 also successful here two years ago with the Fabre-trained Junko \u2013 and their racing manager Pierre-Yves Bureau was impressed with the horse\u2019s condition when seeing him at trackwork on Friday morning (12 December).<\/p>
\u201cHe ran a brilliant race in the Arc and we were delighted,\u201d Bureau said. \u201cHe\u2019s a beautiful horse who has an awful lot of power under the bonnet.<\/p>
\u201cHis coat remains fantastic, he\u2019s in great shape physically and I think he has a real chance on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>
Bureau is respectful of a deep field which, in addition to Giavellotto, features four more Group 1 winners in the shape of Al Riffa, Los Angeles, Goliath and Urban Chic.<\/p>
\u201cI think nearly every horse in the line-up is here because they have produced one or more big performances through the course of the year and any one of them that brings their \u2018A\u2019 game could win,\u201d Bureau said.<\/p>
\u201cI think it\u2019s really important that we are coming here with a horse who\u2019s had a superb year, and we just need things to go right.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s only had one disappointing race all year, and apart from that, he has been superb. He has delighted us each time and I think he will have a big say on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”11488″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Down the years, Andre Fabre has proved himself a master at identifying the right horses to send to the HK$26 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m), boasting a remarkable record of three wins and five placed efforts from 15 starters, dating back to a victorious debut at the meeting with… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":11490,"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-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11485"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11485"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11530,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11485\/revisions\/11530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}