{"id":3371,"date":"2020-04-24T12:53:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T04:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctr-campaigns.hkjc.com\/rising-stars\/?p=3371"},"modified":"2020-04-25T13:23:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T05:23:32","slug":"wellingtons-star-on-the-rise-rattan-and-wishful-thinker-ready-for-g1s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/rising-stars\/en\/news\/wellingtons-star-on-the-rise-rattan-and-wishful-thinker-ready-for-g1s","title":{"rendered":"Wellington\u2019s star on the rise, Rattan and Wishful Thinker ready for G1s"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
[vc_row el_class=”section-padding-top”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”2016″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” css_animation=”none” el_class=”title”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/div>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”3368″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Group 1 action will dominate FWD Champions Day at Sha Tin on Sunday (26 April) but one of Hong Kong racing\u2019s exciting young prospects will be out to grab a little of the limelight with the undefeated Wellington contesting the Class 3 Vengeance Of Rain Handicap (1400m).\r\n\r\nTrainer Richard Gibson has Rattan and Wishful Thinker entered for their respective G1 assignments, but a victory for the handler\u2019s potential star would indicate a bright future and even a possible Four-Year-Old Classic Series campaign next term.\r\n\r\nGibson enjoyed Classic Series success in 2013 when Gold-Fun took the Hong Kong Classic Mile and Akeed Mofeed the BMW Hong Kong Derby, and while Wellington has a long way to go before competing at that level, the gelding has done what few horses do – three wins from just three Hong Kong starts.\r\n\r\n\u201cWellington has done very well – very few horses win three on the trot in Hong Kong but to make it four would be a great credit to his name,\u201d Gibson said.\r\n\r\nThe three-year-old Australian-bred PPG (Privately Purchased Griffin) has already earned HK$2.2 million (approx. AUD$440,000).\r\n\r\n\u201cWe thought we\u2019d bought a very decent horse, the trackwork reports were very promising in Australia,\u201d Gibson said, \u201cBut as we all know, there are a lot of boxes to tick before they adapt here and he had a very smooth transition into training and all of his trials were very good pre-debut, so we were crossing our fingers.\u201d\r\n\r\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
<\/div>

Wellington charges clear for his third consecutive win.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Wellington steps up to 1400m for the first time. His sire All Too Hard was a G1 winner over 1600m in the 2012 Caulfield Guineas and followed that effort with runner-up in the 2012 G1 Cox Plate (2040m) to Ocean Park, with five-time G1 winner Pierro in third.\r\n\r\n\u201cI\u2019m pretty confident about the trip, we\u2019ve drawn well so we\u2019ll see if he can step up to the plate,\u201d Gibson said.\r\n\r\n\u201cThat will be him for the season, we\u2019ll put him away, win lose or draw that\u2019s him done for the season after this race.\u201d\r\n\r\nAs for Gibson\u2019s G1 hopes, Rattan represents the Englishman in the G1 FWD Champions Mile. The Savabeel gelding has proven to be an accomplished horse across his career as a seven-time winner, including last year\u2019s G2 Sprint Cup (1200m). He also finished second in the G1 Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize (1200m) on this day last year, but this time has his sights on Beauty Generation and co. in the Mile.\r\n\r\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]

<\/div>

Rattan and Wishful Thinker close under strong holds in their trial.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The New Zealand-bred trialled on the Sha Tin dirt seven days ago with Neil Callan in the plate, who takes riding duties on Sunday.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to keep him fresh and his energy levels as high as possible at the back end of the season,\u201d Gibson said.\r\n\r\nA three-time course and distance winner previously, the six-year-old is proven on soft ground, meaning the current sporadic showers should prove no hindrance to his chances.\r\n\r\n\u201cI think his chances increase with the recent rainfall, he loves some cut in the ground so the conditions give us a degree of a shout for some prize money,\u201d Gibson said.\r\n\r\nWishful Thinker steps out for Gibson in the G1 Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize as he searches for his first win since March 2019, before his seventh-placed effort in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint (1200m) at Meydan Racecourse, Dubai.\r\n\r\n\u201cWishful Thinker is a very consistent horse, there will be a lot of pace on in the race which is going to really suit him so we\u2019ll see if he can come late,\u201d Gibson said.\r\n\r\nThe I Am Invincible gelding will break from gate four with Frenchman Antoine Hamelin in the plate.\r\n\r\nFWD Champions Day features three Group 1 races, the FWD QEII Cup (2000m), the G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) and the G1 Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize (1200m).\r\n\r\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”3368″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Group 1 action will dominate FWD Champions Day at Sha Tin on Sunday (26 April) but one of Hong Kong racing\u2019s exciting young prospects will be out to grab a little of the limelight with the undefeated Wellington contesting the Class 3 Vengeance Of Rain Handicap (1400m). Trainer Richard Gibson has… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"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\/rising-stars\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/rising-stars\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/rising-stars\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/rising-stars\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/rising-stars\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3371"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/rising-stars\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3374,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/rising-stars\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3371\/revisions\/3374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/rising-stars\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/rising-stars\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/rising-stars\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}