Speed Dragon (123lb) made a triumphant return to racing tonight (Wednesday, 15 October) following 241 days away after scorching to a rousing first-up success in the HK$3.12 million Class 2 Lei Yue Mun Handicap (1800m) at Happy Valley.<\/p>
Sidelined for four months following a ligament injury, Speed Dragon \u2013 the first winner of a running treble for jockey Vincent Ho \u2013 crossed immediately from his wide draw (10) to settle in last position. Pacesetter Telecom Fighters (124lb) made the running before yielding at the top of the home straight as Speed Dragon gradually pinched ground.\u00a0<\/p>
Helene Feeling (126lb) took the lead turning for home as Californiatotality (130lb) made his run. Ho asked the Francis Lui-trained Speed Dragon to lift between runners and the six-year-old obliged, clocking a race-best 22.87s over the final 400m to defeat Californiatotality in 1m 47.96s by a short head with Encountered (128lb) filling third.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cHe trialled very well, so I actually expected him to be very competitive, which he was,\u201d Ho said. \u201cIt was great that he could win for the owner. Everything went well for him; the opening on the inside was perfect.<\/p>
\u201cI think so (to progressing further), it\u2019s still early in the season and he will be fitter after this race tonight. I\u2019m grateful that Francis and my boss (Caspar Fownes) support me. Hopefully I can kick on some more.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Speed Dragon launches late to land Class 2 victory.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Indentured to Caspar Fownes as an apprentice, Ho kicked off his three-timer at the city circuit aboard All Too Hard youngster Mr Desira (127lb) for Fownes \u2013 who also celebrated a double \u2013 in the third section of the Class 4 Fung Mo Handicap (1200m).<\/p>
Ho, who returned to competition at the start of this season following neck fractures and a head injury, sealed his trio when Lui\u2019s King Miles (121lb) held onto the Class 3 Hok Yuen Handicap (1200m) over a fast-finishing Storm Rider (135lb). Tonight\u2019s treble his Ho\u2019s first since 1 December, 2024.<\/p>
Ho said: \u201cHe showed his form again at the trials. The stable has done a great job with him, he was fit and performed tonight early in the season, where he has an advantage when he\u2019s fit and with the draw (one). If not, we would have been beaten! We only won by a head.\u201d<\/p>
Sporting celebrity icon Aaron Kwok\u2019s familiar black and red silks, five-year-old Dancing Classics (128lb) toughed out a second career score in the second section of the Class 4 Fung Mo Handicap (1200m) under apprentice Ellis Wong to commence Fownes\u2019 brace.<\/p>
Wong said: \u201cI\u2019m very happy to win for Aaron again. He (Dancing Classics) has improved a lot from last season. This horse, he did a very good job. The shadow roll made him more relaxed, and he had a good barrier (one), the pace was good, and in the straight he tried so hard.\u201d<\/p>
Tonight\u2019s double puts Fownes behind only Mark Newnham (11-12) in the trainers\u2019 championship. Newnham reclaimed outright top spot with Excellence Value\u2019s (125lb) score in the nightcap, the Class 3 Lung Cheung Handicap (1800m), under Zac Purton.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6496″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
A clever ride from Luke Ferraris saw Satono Aladdin gelding King Glorioso (122lb) hold off a rampaging Thunder Prince (128lb) by a nose in the first section of the Class 4 Fung Mo Handicap (1200m) for trainer Douglas Whyte.<\/p>
Whyte said: \u201cOnly when the number went up was I happy. Luke gave him an absolutely beautiful ride \u2013 he could\u2019ve led but he let the speed go, took advantage of that, got the horse to settle and he got off the rail and got going at the right time. The margin was very narrow but a win\u2019s a win, so the good ride made the difference.\u201d<\/p>
Justify gelding Fantastic Fun (128lb) roared to a first win for jockey Hugh Bowman and trainer Danny Shum in the second section of the Class 4 Hung Luen Handicap (1650m).<\/p>
Six-year-old Celtic Times (119lb) rallied late to grab a third career triumph in the first section of the Class 4 Hung Luen Handicap (1650m) with jockey Karis Teetan for trainer Manfred Man, surprising at odds of 29\/1 by one-and-a-half lengths.<\/p>
Apolar Fighter (123lb) exploded to a first win at his 20th start for jockey Jerry Chau and trainer David Eustace in the Class 5 Ngau Chi Wan Handicap (1650m). The success was Eustace\u2019s first for the 2025\/26 racing season following his 36-win maiden campaign.<\/p>
\u201cThe horse has been running well and just been hitting the crossbar,\u201d Eustace said. \u201cHe\u2019s shown plenty of promise. I thought he would win before tonight in Class 5 \u2013 hopefully, he can get a bit of confidence now.<\/p>
\u201cJerry hasn\u2019t ridden much for us, but it was a great ride by him. It\u2019s nice to get a winner, most of mine have taken a run to get going so hopefully we can kick on now as a stable.\u201d<\/p>
Hong Kong racing continues this Sunday (19 October) at Sha Tin with the running of the HK$5.35 million G2 Sha Tin Trophy Handicap (1600m).<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6494″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Speed Dragon (123lb) made a triumphant return to racing tonight (Wednesday, 15 October) following 241 days away after scorching to a rousing first-up success in the HK$3.12 million Class 2 Lei Yue Mun Handicap (1800m) at Happy Valley.Sidelined for four months following a ligament injury, Speed Dragon \u2013 the first winner… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":6498,"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-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6491"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6491"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6497,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6491\/revisions\/6497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-million-challenge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}