Cap Ferrat became the first maiden to win the Hong Kong Derby in nearly 50 years, taking advantage of a dream run under Craig Williams to take the city’s most prestigious race by the tightest of margins for champion trainer Francis Lui.
Group 1-placed at 2000 metres in Australia behind top horses like Tom Kitten, Riff Rocket and Ceolwulf, Cap Ferrat once again showed his mettle at the trip to take victory by a nose, putting behind him poor efforts in the Hong Kong Classic Mile and Hong Kong Classic Cup (1800m) leading into the Derby.
It made him the first maiden to win the Hong Kong Derby since Top Gain took the prize at Happy Valley in 1978.
“What a horse, to come here and win your first race in a race of this calibre,” Williams said. “When I first came to ride here many years ago, it was always the race I wanted to win. A few weeks ago, I got a call from Francis, he was at the Sydney yearling sales. He asked me if I wanted to ride Cap Ferrat, who I’d ridden in Australia. I always liked the horse, he had good 2000m form and I was happy to come over and ride.
“I said to Francis after I rode him in the Classic Cup, ‘if you get him right, he can perform’. That’s why he is such a great trainer, he did everything right and I was just in the right spot to get the victory today.”
Williams settled Cap Ferrat handy, right behind a moderate tempo set by Hugh Bowman on Lo Rider. When Lo Rider rolled off the fence on straightening, Williams sent Cap Ferrat up the fence as his stablemate Packing Angel charged towards him.
And then came the ominous threat of My Wish, rattling home down the outside. Mark Newnham’s Classic Mile winner had been taken all the way back to last by Luke Ferraris from gate 14, but he surged at Cap Ferrat and at the line it was difficult to split the pair.
It took longer than the race’s 2:00.67 for the result to be officially declared, but it was Cap Ferrat who will be written into the record books as the 2025 Hong Kong Derby winner. He gave Hong Kong’s reigning champion trainer Lui his second Derby success after Golden Sixty scored in front of an empty Sha Tin at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020.
“I’m very excited, it was the owner’s dream to win this race,” he said. “I wasn’t confident but I knew he was a very good horse. The last two runs, he’d had a bad draw so a turnaround wasn’t a surprise. I watched it on the TV, I had to watch the replay a few times but once I’d seen it again I was confident he had won.
“Craig had ridden the horse in Australia and I think he would have learnt a lot again from last time too. It all worked out.”
Williams had ridden some future top-liners in the Derby over the last two decades – subsequent Hong Kong Mile winner The Duke, ninth in 2004, and international Group 1 winner Military Attack, sixth in 2012 – but he had never been able to get closer than his second aboard Momentum in 2001.
“I’ve been trying for a long time and it had just never come together,” he said. “It really is the race here in Hong Kong and so this is very special to me.”
For all of the ecstasy experienced by Lui, Williams and owner Karen Lo, there was anguish for Newnham, Ferraris and the owners of pint-sized My Wish.
“Very brave, that’s probably the best way to describe him,” Newnham said. “He has been all season, he’s been the best four-year-old through the series. On Thursday, when we drew 14, we thought we might have known our fate but to run so close, it’s disappointing but that’s the way it fell today. And it’s exciting too because we know we have a very good horse.”
While the Hong Kong Derby is often a springboard to next month’s G1 QEII Cup (2000m), Cap Ferrat does not yet hold an entry for the Champions Day feature where he would take on heavyweight rivals like Goliath and Liberty Island. Lo already has the Ricky Yiu-trained Straight Arron among the entries. ∎
