Fast Network is scheduled for a return to Hong Kong from Japan on September 25 and will not participate in the G1 Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama on September 27, the gelding’s trainer Dennis Yip has told Idol Horse.
The Group 1-placed six-year-old had been set for a two-race campaign in Japan, featuring the G2 Centaur Stakes and the G1 Sprinters Stakes, but trailed home a disappointing 15th in the first of those assignments at Hanshin last Sunday.
Yip revealed after that defeat that Fast Network had suffered a recurrence of a throat issue, for which he underwent surgery in May 2025, described as the release of an epiglottic entrapment.
The trainer responded to Idol Horse via a stable assistant, saying that Fast Network is withdrawn and “will not go for the Sprinters Stakes now”, and confirmed the return date directly via phone message.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s head of racing product Greg Carpenter told Idol Horse that while the Club does not receive a scratching or withdrawal notice from the Japan Racing Association (JRA), his understanding was that arrangements were being made to return Fast Network to Hong Kong.
Yip’s charge was a rare overseas runner in a Japanese Group 2 race last weekend, and would have been attempting to become the third Hong Kong-trained winner of the Sprinters Stakes – after Silent Witness in 2005 and Ultra Fantasy in 2010 – an option which connections had taken to avoid clashing again at Sha Tin with the seemingly unbeatable Ka Ying Rising, the world’s top-rated horse.
Fast Network had been due to be ridden in the Sprinters Stakes by his Centaur Stakes pilot Damian Lane.
