With Luxembourg fronting a squad which is represented in each of the four Longines-sponsored Hong Kong International Races (HKIR), it is unlikely that Aidan O’Brien will have ever arrived at the December 9 meeting with such strength in depth.
It may well be a reflection of the standard of horse at Ballydoyle, which includes dual Derby winner Auguste Rodin, last seen winning the Breeders’ Cup Turf, and Europe’s most exciting two-year-old, City Of Troy.
Luxembourg, who was beaten only a half-length by Auguste Rodin in attempting to defend his Irish Champion Stakes title, leads the line the HK Cup over 2,000 metres (1m2f), the highight of four G1 events on the prestigious Sha Tin card.
The four-year-old is one of the highest profile runners that has been brought to Sha Tin by the world’s #1 trainer according to Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Global Rankings.
“We were training him for the Champion Stakes in England and he got a foot bruise, it just held him up for a couple of weeks that’s why didn’t go there,” O’Brien said.
“Obviously it was a great run in the Irish Champion Stakes over a mile and a quarter, he’s versatile we think and he likes nice ground. We’re looking forward to him.”
O’Brien has a record three victories in the HK Vase and this time he has nominated dual G1 winner Warm Heart, fresh from a neck defeat to Inspiral in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Santa Anita.
“We were debating what we’d do, I suppose either of them could have gone either way but we just felt it was a very good run in the Irish Champion Stakes from Luxembourg,” the trainer explained.
“Warm Heart ran over 10 furlongs in America but she’d won her two Group 1s over a mile and a half. “She’s been very progressive, she’s thrived physically, loves nicer ground, she’s tactically quick and she doesn’t surrender. She’s been unbelievable really.”
One about whom we may well hear more of in the future is HK Mile-bound Cairo, who was second to his prolific stablemate Paddington in the Irish 2000 Guineas and returned from a break over the European summer to finish a close third in a Listed race over the same distance at Leopardstown in late October.
“We were hopeful he’d get into Hong Kong but he had to have a run,” O’Brien said. “We were delighted with him. He obviously got a bit tired, the ground was very soft and wasn’t ideal but his run before when he was second to Paddington was on nice ground and we’ve been very happy with his work since.
“We think he’s progressed plenty. We always thought and hoped he could be a horse that could go on to a lot of those races all over the world.”
The last member of a quartet due to arrive this weekend is in the HK Sprint with the three-year-old colt Aesop’s Fables, third in both the Prix de l’Abbaye and the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
O’Brien said: “He’s been progressive all the time. We put the blinkers on before France, we were delighted there and then he ran a stormer in America.
“He’s a big horse, maybe he just took a bit of time to get the hang of it,” he went on. “His best two runs were over five furlongs but he looks like he’s been coming home well in both runs. There’s every chance he should be ok over six but we’ll learn a lot more about him.”
• Visit the Hong Kong Jockey Club website
What’s been happening: Equinox retired, Mage retired, Panthalassa retired and more …
‘He is literally a superhorse’ – Equinox unchallenged as world #1 after emphatic Japan Cup triumph
‘He’s so passionate and he loves teaching’ – learning how to be a jockey the Jose Corrales way
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires