EXULTANT raced to an authoritative victory in the Group 3 Premier Plate Handicap over nine furlongs at Sha Tin on Sunday, matching obvious aptitude with a willing resolve to gallop a length and a quarter clear of his closest rival.
“It’s never easy to carry top-weight in group races so that was a good effort,” jockey Zac Purton said of the 1.7 favourite. The Tony Cruz-trained four-year-old, who raced for Michael Halford as Irishcorrespondent, defied a 133lb impost and a wide passage on the final turn to see off his seven rivals in a time of 1m 46.09s, well inside standard.
“I felt we had only one horse to beat and that was Gold Mount,” Purton said. “I knew he was always going to be giving me a start so if I got first run on him and kept going I knew I’d be hard to beat. He’s fit, he’s been racing over longer distances and that’s his style.”
Exultant had led home Gold Mount at their previous start, too, when the pair filled the minor placings behind another Cruz galloper, Pakistan Star. That was in the Group 1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup over 12 furlongs.
Purton made use of the bay’s innate stamina this afternoon, shifting wide and beginning an advance as the field began to turn out of the backstretch.
Exultant, driven along, was the widest runner in a lead-contesting line of four taking the home turn. The Teofilo gelding had that battle won at the 400-metre mark and maintained a relentless charge to the line.
“He’s starting to begin better, so he’s going to help himself in that regard, but he’s still one-paced,” the premiership leader said.
Exultant’s effort handed Cruz a first Premier Plate win since Bullish Cash in 2008.
PERFECT RACE
“I was confident of Exultant and Gold Mount, I expected them to be first and second and the jockeys rode the right race,” the handler said. “Zac rode the perfect race on Exultant. This horse has one pace – Zac came early with his run and showed exactly how to outrun them. Next season, he’ll be aimed at the staying races like the Hong Kong Vase.”
Cruz completed a feature race double when the Karis Teetan-trained California Whip won the Group 3 Premier Cup Handicap.
California Whip displayed grit to hold his pressing opponents ensuring trainer Tony Cruz’s completion of a remarkable run of big-race success.
The handler has won all six of Hong Kong’s pattern races in May and June, a streak that features Pakistan Star’s brilliant Group 1 brace.
“I’m excited about how things have gone today, it’s always good to count the big ones – they count the most,” Cruz said.
Moreira takes the honours
RIDER Joao Moreira sparked the jockeys’ championship battle to life with a quickfire early double at Happy Valley on Wednesday, but title leader Zac Purton’s victory on Doctor Geoff in the night’s feature ensured that he still holds a commanding lead in the title race with five meetings left to go in the season.
The Tony Cruz-trained Doctor Geoff produced the star performance of the night with his triumph in the Class 2 Manawatu Racing Club Challenge Trophy Handicap. The former Irish-trained gelding, a two-time winner at Naas for trainer Ger Lyons pre-import, had placed at four of his first seven Hong Kong starts.
He won in impressive fashion, racing clear for a three and a quarter-length success under Purton.
Another former Lyons trainee, the John Size-prepared Insayshable, filled the runner-up stall with Moreira aboard.
The trophy success took Purton to 127 wins for the season, giving the Australian rider a four-win championship lead entering July.
Werther gallant in defeat
SETBACKS, an earthquake, weight loss, a wide draw and firm ground could not stop Werther’s bid for glory in the Group 1 Takarazuka Kinen, but a Rocket could as the champion stayer fell just short of victory at Hanshin on Sunday.
“We are so proud of him, he is all heart,” said an emotional John Moore, the trainer’s voice cracking, after Werther returned to the runner-up stall in front of almost 66,000 spectators.
“He’s a horse that knows where the winning post is and he showed a lot of fortitude to hit the line. I don’t like running second, never do, but from a Hong Kong point of view, we’ve shown just how good our best stayer is.
“To take on the best of the Japanese and to run as well as he did, it just shows – don’t take Hong Kong’s horses lightly.”
Hugh Bowman kept the Tavistock gelding back to settle in the last four down the Hanshin straight the first time, sitting quietly on the bay until the 600m point.
Bowman then brought Hong Kong’s 2015/16 Horse of the Year to the outside of the field. He came with a withering run down the centre of the track. However, he could not reel in trainer Hidetaka Otonashi’s gutsy Mikki Rocket, who scraped home for a neck victory.
Moore confirmed that Werther, with his season now at an end, would aim at the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup in December, while he is eyeing off a Dubai Turf run next year with the six-year-old.