Brett Crawford celebrated the most significant triumph of a burgeoning Hong Kong, China career when the South African combined with familiar ally Karis Teetan to land the HK$4.2 million G3 Sa Sa Ladies\u2019 Purse Handicap (1800m) with Encountered (115lb) at Sha Tin on Sunday (9 November).<\/p>
Saddling only his 31st starter this season since arriving at Sha Tin after a decorated South African career, Crawford exulted in a stirring victory after Teetan drove Encountered \u2013 the 2023 Sa Sa Ladies\u2019 Purse victor \u2013 to a short-head margin over Happy Together (129lb) and Moments In Time (127lb) in 1m 47.35s in front of a 34,784 crowd.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s stuff that you probably couldn\u2019t script. I\u2019m super excited \u2013 he\u2019s (Encountered) actually very similar to a Group 1 horse Karis rode at home called Jackson, he\u2019s very similar in stature and it brought back a lot of memories,\u201d Crawford said.<\/p>
\u201cThe guys at home have worked really hard on this horse and I can\u2019t thank them enough. It\u2019s a fairytale start for me \u2013 to win a Group 3 in Hong Kong within your first season is really amazing.<\/p>
\u201cI could see him making up the ground and I knew he had a good chance, but there was a horse (Happy Together) who got just ahead of us and I wasn\u2019t sure if we were going to get him in time.<\/p>
\u201cIt really came down to the wire \u2013 it was a great race. I\u2019ve really got to give credit to Karis, he rode a really good race and put a lot of hard work into the preparation.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Karis Teetan drives Encountered to narrow victory over Happy Together.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Pitted against 11 LONGINES Hong Kong International Races nominees, Encountered reprised his best form to charge from eighth on the home turn, clocking 23.36s, to win his first race since the 2023 Sa Sa Ladies\u2019 Purse, while favourite Cap Ferrat was eased out of the race.<\/p>
Crawford said possible plans to contest the HK$40 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m) on 14 December would hinge on the six-year-old\u2019s recovery.<\/p>
\u201cWe\u2019ll go one race at a time,\u201d Crawford said. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure he will feel this race tomorrow. He\u2019s a horse who takes his racing quite hard. We\u2019ll enjoy the moment and reassess everything tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>
Teetan said: \u201cMyself and Brett, we go a long way back. He gave me a chance when I was still young and he taught me a lot \u2013 not just about being a jockey, but about being a human being and how to deal with life after you come out of your apprenticeship.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s been a great part of my life and I\u2019m glad that he\u2019s here (in Hong Kong), and he\u2019s continuously giving me support and winning this race for him just means a lot.<\/p>
\u201cI worked him (Encountered) through week and I thought it was the best I had felt him in a long time. The horse was happy, felt good \u2013 today, the last 50 (metres), I needed him and the horse responded well.\u201d<\/p>
Teetan rode several elite winners for Crawford in South Africa and today\u2019s Sa Sa Ladies\u2019 Purse success marked Teetan\u2019s third victory in the race after wins on Horse Of Fortune (2016) and Ensued (2024).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7964″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Without a winner in 87 runners since 21 September, 13-time champion trainer John Size launched a familiar November charge with a treble through Sight Hermoso, Ka Ying Power and Szeryng to move to five winners for the campaign.<\/p>
Following his usual pattern of making a measured start to the season before his runners hit top form in November, the Australian struck with Sight Hermoso (127lb) in the Class 4 Grace One Handicap (1000m) under Brenton Avdulla, Ka Ying Power (118lb) for Keith Yeung in the Class 5 Kate Tokyo Handicap (1400m) and Szeryng (132lb) under Zac Purton in the Class 4 Suisse Programme Handicap (1200m).<\/p>
\u201cNormally, as you\u2019ve probably read 1000 times, we have slow starts to seasons but as long as we get going eventually, that\u2019s the main thing,\u201d Size said.<\/p>
Circuit Grand Slam (119lb) made a stunning Hong Kong debut for Manfred Man and Britney Wong by sweeping from the rear of the field to easily win the Class 3 Canmake Tokyo Handicap (1200m), clocking 45.26s for the final 800m to earn a PP Bonus of HK$1.5 million plus the winners\u2019 purse of HK$1.04 million.<\/p>
A full brother to dual Group 1 winner Blackbeard and Royal Ascot Group 2 victor Charles Darwin, the No Nay Never gelding won over 1200m at The Curragh in June, 2024 when he raced as Tunbridge Wells for Aidan O\u2019Brien.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7963″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
\u201cBefore I got on, I didn\u2019t think there was much chance of winning because he was having his first start as a European but everything went to our favour, because the race really didn\u2019t favour the lead, it didn\u2019t favour the fence,\u201d Wong said.<\/p>
\u201cIt was good that we could just jump neutral and we didn\u2019t have to be up the front, we didn\u2019t have to urge him during the race and I just had to keep him balanced and help him travel and he was still very green and I think he will improve from that.<\/p>
\u201cCertainly, he showed his ability today and so hopefully he can forward and upwards.\u201d<\/p>
Dennis Yip slotted a double with Super Love (128lb) under Hugh Bowman in the Class 4 Elizabeth Arden Handicap (1400m) and Thriving Brothers (115lb) for Matthew Chadwick in the Class 3 Neogence Handicap (1400m) before David Eustace\u2019s Light Years Charm (130lb) provided Purton with a double with a brave display in the Class 2 Santa Monica Handicap (1400m).<\/p>
Matthew Poon (118lb) celebrated his 32nd birthday in style when David Hall\u2019s Mr Good Vibes held on tenaciously to land the Class 5 L\u2019Oreal Paris Handicap (1600m) before James Orman drove Me Tsui\u2019s The Auspicious (130lb) to a head victory over Audacious Spirit (126lb) in the Class 4 La Estephe Handicap (1600m).<\/p>
Hong Kong racing continues at Happy Valley on Wednesday (12 November).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7962″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Brett Crawford celebrated the most significant triumph of a burgeoning Hong Kong, China career when the South African combined with familiar ally Karis Teetan to land the HK$4.2 million G3 Sa Sa Ladies\u2019 Purse Handicap (1800m) with Encountered (115lb) at Sha Tin on Sunday (9 November).Saddling only his 31st starter this… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7965,"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-ladies-purse-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7959"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-ladies-purse-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-ladies-purse-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-ladies-purse-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-ladies-purse-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7959"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-ladies-purse-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7973,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-ladies-purse-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7959\/revisions\/7973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-ladies-purse-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-ladies-purse-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-ladies-purse-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-ladies-purse-day\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}