The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s wish list each year for the Longines Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) is extensive, but for months there had been one item at the top of the agenda: recruit more Australians.
It has been 23 years since Australia scored their sixth – and most recent – win at the “Turf World Championships”. The country has never won at Group 1 level at the meeting.
The HKIR meeting used to be a traditional end of year target for Australians in the 1990s and early 2000s, coming off the back of a spring carnival that had a logical sequence beginning in Sydney before transitioning to Melbourne in early October. Now, the Australian spring is an imperfect patchwork with enough big prize money events to keep most of the top horses on home soil.
With all that in mind, the Jockey Club should be deservedly satisfied with the trio of horses who have made the trek from Melbourne.
The Vase features Without A Fight, just the 12th horse to complete the prestigious Cups double of the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup last year. Stepping out in the Sprint is Recommendation, who will rightly line up as an outsider but is perhaps more notable as the first Hong Kong runner for Australia’s biggest trainer Ciaron Maher.
However, it is Mile runner Antino – a horse with deep roots in Hong Kong despite never stepping foot in the city until two weeks ago – who perhaps best represents the evolving dynamic of the link between the two jurisdictions.
There are similarities between Antino and the last Australian winner at the meeting, 2000 and 2001 Hong Kong Sprint winner Falvelon.
Like Falvelon, Antino represents the state of Queensland, typically ranked third in Australia’s racing hierarchy behind New South Wales and Victoria. Falvelon was trained by Danny Bougoure, an international newcomer, while Antino is prepared by 11-time Queensland champion Tony Gollan, who will also be saddling up his first runner abroad.
Coincidentally, Falvelon was unplaced in Queensland’s biggest race – the G1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) – before winning on Caulfield Guineas Day in Melbourne and then taking his first Hong Kong Sprint. Antino this year was unplaced in the Stradbroke, won the G1 Toorak Handicap (1600m) on Caulfield Guineas Day and now lines up in the Mile.
Perhaps it was fated that Antino would end up in Hong Kong. Bred by Hongkonger George Kit Ma under his Blossom Trading and Breeding Company banner, he was secured by another Hong Kong local – Jeetu Ramchandani – NZ$27,000 (HK$123,000) as a two-year-old in 2021.
“The dream has always been on the cards and it has been a serious prospect for a year,” said Ramchandani. “It’s a great story for a Hong Kong owner, racing a horse in Australia and then bringing him to Hong Kong and racing it on the world stage. We had looked at bringing him to Hong Kong when we bought him, but he would not have passed the vet at that stage and so we decided to race him in Australia.
“You would always hope that you’d get here to Hong Kong against some of the world’s best but for it to be a reality, I still can’t quite believe it.”
An important member of the team is groom and track rider Baylee Nothdurft, who won the 2019-20 Brisbane jockeys’ premiership as an apprentice. He was the first claimer to achieve the feat since Zac Purton in 2003.
And Purton is now on track to become the most prolific jockey in Hong Kong history in a matter of weeks. Nothdurft, who retired due to weight issues, will never be able to scale Purton’s heights in the saddle but perhaps it is only fitting that he might be able to secure a Hong Kong victory of his own on Sunday ∎
