JOCKEY Karis Teetan continued his perfect run through Hong Kong’s Group races in 2018 after taking the G3 Bauhinia Sprint Trophy Handicap (1000m) aboard John Size’s Premiere at Sha Tin.

Six days after winning the G3 Chinese Club Challenge Cup Handicap (1400m) on Fifty Fifty, Teetan produced a well-planned ride aboard Premiere to take the Bauhinia Sprint Trophy, one of only two Group races over the Sha Tin straight.

Instead of allowing Premiere to lead, as he had often done in the past, Teetan settled the Dylan Thomas gelding just behind early lamplighter Fabulous One on the grandstand rail.

“In his trials, I’d been taking a sit on him and he’d been letting down nicely,” Teetan said, with Size adding: “I’d been mindful that he would have to get around a bend eventually, so I’d been trying to get him used to the idea of travelling behind horses in his dirt trials. He seemed to bring that to the races today.”

“I knew that with a steady tempo set by Fabulous One, he’d get a nice trail and that he would let down – and he did!” Teetan continued. “Once he got through the gap at the 300m, which he did very comfortably, he went on with it and he was so strong right to the line.”

At the line, 3.2 shot Premiere (115lb) had a three-quarter length margin over Chris So’s Fabulous One (113lb), with a further half-length back to Premiere’s stablemate House Of Fun (115lb), who finished third as the even-money favourite. The winner stopped the clock in 56.95s on the good-to-yielding surface, the slowest running of the race since champion Fairy King Prawn scored in 2001.

Premiere was named Champion Griffin after his exploits as a three-year-old, when he won three of his 12 starts and took his rating from 52 to 82. However, he has gone to another level at four, winning all four of his starts this season and emerging as a legitimate stakes-level galloper.

“He’s certainly stronger this season,” Size said. “He’s shown that he has taken a step forward, so now, we are going to have to bite the bullet and attempt 1200m with him, because the next 1000m race for him is not until October. We have no other option.”

Size said he would study the programme to find the next race for Premiere, but he was lukewarm about the idea of tackling the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup (1200m) with the bay. There, he would be forced to tackle stablemates Mr Stunning, D B Pin, Amazing Kids and Beat The Clock at set weights.

The feature was the second leg of a double for Teetan, who earlier won the Class 3 Heather Handicap (1600m) on Hong Kong Classic Mile aspirant Morethanlucky.

PREVIEW

The card shaped as a preview meeting for the Hong Kong Classic Mile, the first leg of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series on January 21st. It delivered in spades as a number of gallopers booked their spots in the HK$10 million feature.

John Size already has nominal favourite Nothingilikemore heading for the Hong Kong Classic Mile, but the wins of Ping Hai Star in the Class 3 Orchid Handicap (1400m) and Time To Celebrate in the Class 2 Violet Handicap (1600m) – both with Joao Moreira in the saddle – had plenty speculating about classic aspirations.

However, the champion trainer suggested that only Time To Celebrate would head in that direction after his half-length victory as 2.9 favourite in the closer, a race that last produced the Hong Kong Classic Mile winner with Beauty Only in 2015.

“That win takes Time To Celebrate a little higher up in the ratings so I will enter him for the feature races and see if he is well enough to take part in the Classic Mile,” Size said. “He grinds away rather than dashes, but he’s obviously got a little bit more in him because his win rate is so good.

"We just have to take him towards the other races and see if he’s good enough to get some prizemoney. His rating suggests he hasn’t got a winning shot but he can earn some money for the owner.”

Ping Hai Star dazzled with his last-to-first victory, weaving through the field after missing the start by three lengths to defeat Frankie Lor-trained Simply Brilliant by a half-length. For Size, though, the son of Nom Du Jeu is best suited to sprinting trips at this stage of his career.

“He jumped to the left and for some reason, he wasn’t interested early – he just didn’t want to take part,” Size said. “But then Joao has shaken him up, got him interested in the event and away he went.

"He looks like a sprinter on that, so I will think about where to go next but the Classic Mile isn’t likely.”

CONTENDER

Earlier, Lor produced his own Hong Kong Classic Mile contender in Morethanlucky, who won his fourth race of the season in the Class 3 Heather Handicap (1600m) under Karis Teetan to stamp his credentials for the feature.

“I will talk to Karis tonight, but my feeling is that I will enter him for the Classic Mile tomorrow,” Lor said after the son of Per Incanto won by a length and three-quarters.

“I wanted to wait and see how he did today, but after that, I think he has earned his spot in the field. He’s just kept improving and he has become stronger, and I think he still has more to come.

“I think he can step up to 1800m and even 2000m, especially against four-year-olds when anything can happen, but the Classic Mile looks a good race for him. As long as his form holds, he will probably run.”

Entries for the Hong Kong Classic Mile close tomorrow (January 8th).

Hong Kong’s champion jockey Moreira rides top-rated Nothingilikemore in the Hong Kong Classic Mile, but he says he is wary of a number of his rivals after Sunday’s action.

“It’s shaping up as a very competitive race,” Moreira said. “Time To Celebrate has improved so much that he can’t be overlooked, the horse that was third in that race along the outside rail (Doctor Geoff) looks to be coming good at the right time and even Frankie’s horse (Morethanlucky) is racing well. And there are more horses that didn’t race today, of course.

“It’s going to be an exciting race, that’s for sure. I am looking forward to it.”

The Hong Kong Classic Mile is the first leg of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series. It is followed by the Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) on 18 February, with the series culminating in the BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) on 18 March.

Moreira and Teetan both rode doubles at Sha Tin on Sunday, as did Frenchman Alexis Badel, but riding honours went to Zac Purton, who produced a treble from the first six races.

Racing continues at Happy Valley on Wednesday night, with the feature being the only Group race run at the city circuit, the G3 January Cup Handicap (1800m).