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Ambitious Dragon: returned to form in The Stewards’ Cup

  PICTURE: Hong Kong Jockey Club  

Report: Hong Kong, Sunday

Sha Tin: The Stewards’ Cup (Group 1) 1m, turf, 3yo+

AMBITIOUS DRAGON (Tony Millard/Douglas Whyte) reasserted his supremacy as the best horse in Hong Kong with a towering performance in the Stewards’ Cup, the first leg of the local Triple Crown at Sha Tin on Sunday.

After a slightly below-par effort when fourth in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup in December, the reigning Horse of the Year returned to his very best to put away a very strong field – nine of the 14 runners had featured in the recently published World Thoroughbred Rankings – with some panache.

Whyte settled the 6-4 favourite Ambitious Dragon in midfield with cover behind an even tempo and the ease with which he gathered in Xtension, who briefly led at the top of the straight, bore the hallmark of a genuinely world-class talent.

“He has the most scintillating turn of foot,” the perennial champion rider later enthused. “He turns it on so quickly, it’s fascinating. I’ve never felt a turn of foot on a horse like that before.”

Indeed, Whyte only needed to administer one or two gentle taps down his mount’s shoulder to record a length-and-a-quarter margin from Xtension, who filled the same position behind ‘The Dragon’ in last year’s Derby before landing the Champions Mile himself.

California Memory, last month’s Hong Kong Cup hero, encountered a more problematic passage on this occasion and was shuffled back to the tail of the field at the turn. It is to his great credit that he finished very strongly, taking third from an impossible position.

Thumbs Up, dropping back in distance having finished runner-up to Dunaden in the Hong Kong Vase, ran fourth. The veteran Able One, surprise winner of the Hong Kong Mile at the international meeting, came in ninth.

Trainer Tony Millard said plans are fluid as to how the remainder of Ambitious Dragon‘s campaign will be plotted. The Dubai Duty Free at the end of March is an option, but the five-year-old will next be aimed at the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Hong Kong Gold Cup over 1m2f on February 26.

Should he win the latter event, it is also feasible the New Zealand-bred son of Pins could try to become only the second horse to win the Triple Crown whichconcludes with the Champions Chater Cup over 1m4f in late May.

“I don’t think the mile and a half will be a problem the way this horse can turn it on,” Millard said.  

Given that Ambitious Dragon has won four Group 1 races between 1m and 1m2f it is not clear quite what exactly his optimum distance is.

“He is a true champion. He hasn’t got a [best] distance,” was the view of histrainer.     

Millard added: “Going into the Hong Kong Cup he had a bad prep. He’s back from that bad experience. That’s the main thing. He’s back.”   

Also on Sunday:

THE relentless Whyte took riding honours on the day with a treble with his other two victories, Mentor and Aomen, coming in Class 3 for the equally lethal John Size stable.

The former was winning for the fourth time from just five starts since December, while the latter landed his sole prior start last April for James Fanshawe in a Yarmouth maiden.

The meeting ended with what will go down as one thebiggest-priced winners of the season as Neil Callan registered the fifth success of his winter stint on the forgotten 113-1 outsider Windicator Power for Caspar Fownes in the Class 2 sprint.

Neil Callan: big-priced winner

  PICTURE: Mark Cranham  

“We had a good draw and decided not to rush him. He chopped and changed his action a bit early on but he quickened well after he took a gap between horses in the straight,” Callan said.

“That’s my first winner for Caspar, although I haven’t had too many opportunities for him before. I am here for another month and hopefully I can add to the score by the time I go back home at the start of March.”

Jockeys Brett Prebble and the in-form Keith Yeung also registered doubles. Australian Prebble nicked his brace on fancied Class 4 hopes Giggles Forever (Michael Chang) and Medallist (David Hall).

23-year-old Yeung, meanwhile, only just graduated from the apprentice ranks, impressively leapt to joint-third on the jockeys’ table courtesy of wins for his former boss Almond Lee on Super Team and the 40-1 chance Notus.

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