Longines Hong Kong International Races Thursday Track Works

2024 Longines Hong Kong International Races
Workout Photos

Thursday morning at Sha Tin Racecourse.

Date: 12/05/2024

The Longines Hong Kong International Races will be run this Sunday afternoon (Saturday night in North America) at Sha Tin Racecourse. As usual, horses from Europe, Asia, and Australia ship in for the four Group 1 races, billed as the Turf World Championships, with the HK$40 million (US$5.14 million) Hong Kong Cup the highlight of the afternoon, contested at 2000 meters (about 1 1/4 miles). Conditions were excellent during training hours Thursday, with sunny skies and a daytime high of 23.7 C (74.7 F).

Here are photos for 5 of the international horses out on on the dirt track and turf course at Sha Tin on Wednesday morning. Click the small photo to see a larger version.

Lugal (Sprint) worked 6f on turf in 1:23.3 (splits of 33.2, 27.6, and 22.5). Trainer Haruki Sugiyama said, “He is relaxed here so I told jockey to ask him a bit stronger towards the end of the stretch. We usually gallop him on the uphill track at home, but here, he has done on the flat course at the overseas racecourse so it’s hard to compare with how well he has run. After Takamatsunomiya Kinen, he broke his knee and needed to take a long break, but he has recovered perfectly and won the Sprinters Stakes last time which was much better result than our aspects. I know it will be very competitive race on Sunday, but hopefully he will run at his best.”

Soul Rush (Mile) galloped on the turf under exercise rider Yuki Iwasaki, who said “He was fresh, very flexible and felt really good.”.

Without a Fight (Vase) cantered 1 mile on the dirt. Trainer Sam Freedman said, “He is going well and everything has been pretty smooth. He did a bit of work on Tuesday and will just canter through to Sunday, I’d say. Funny enough I reckon he is better this direction (clockwise). Every rider who has ridden him says he changes his leg at the right time. It’s strange.”

Luxembourg (Vase) cantered on the dirt track. Assistant trainer Pat Keating said, “They just went a mile and it all went well. I would think we’ll just stay on the all-weather this week, it’s what we usually do. It could change and we could take them on the turf but we’ll leave that to the trainer when he gets here.”

Lazzat (Cup) cantered 1 mile on the dirt under assistant trainer Franck Blondel. Blondel said, “He has kept going forward since he arrived here from Australia and his work has been perfect, so I think he’ll be at 100 per cent for the race on Sunday. He had a hard race in the Golden Eagle, doing a lot of his own running and towing the others along, but 10 days afterwards he was fully recovered and he is coming into Sunday primed to run a big race. He’s up against different opposition and a better class of horse than in the Golden Eagle but he showed that day he is a high-quality horse. He wasn’t beaten because of the distance [1500m] in Australia and I don’t expect it to be an issue going up to 1600 metres here. On quite deep sand, he has eaten up the trip for breakfast in the mornings.”

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