City Of Troy’s preparations for the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar will get plenty of attention in the coming weeks, but in Hong Kong, his full brother Unbelievable is quietly on the comeback trail.
Unbelievable cantered at Sha Tin on Tuesday for the first time since suffering a tendon injury to his off-fore leg in May. The son of Justify won two of five starts when raced as Bertinelli out of Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stable, and was third in the King George V Handicap at Royal Ascot before being sold to race in the silks of Lor’s stable syndicate.
“Unbelievable is just back to cantering and he looks fine,” Lor told Idol Horse. “We found the injury early, so we’re quite lucky because if we hadn’t picked it up and had sent him back to the races it would have been much more serious than it was.
“At the moment, I’m just taking it each day and we’ll give him time, that’s the best approach. We’ll see how he is: I don’t want to push him too hard; he’s a big horse, more than 1200 lb, and he’s still a colt.”
There are not many entire horses on the Hong Kong circuit, but the exploits of his full brother have so far spared him from being gelded. City Of Troy has made his mark as a superstar in Europe, following up a champion juvenile season with wins this year in the G1 Derby, G1 Eclipse Stakes and G1 Juddmonte International Stakes, all in England.
Unbelievable is without a win in five Hong Kong starts, but the four-year-old was a good third in the G3 Queen Mother Memorial Cup over 2400m eight days before injury struck, and that came after a promising fifth in the Hong Kong Derby over 2000m in March.
“Because of his brother, the owners said, ‘Don’t geld him yet,’ so we’ll see what he can do. If he wins a nice race he has some stallion value maybe,” Lor added.
Meanwhile, Danny Shum also has an interesting Justify colt in his stable, again bought out of Ballydoyle. Romantic Thor, who hails from a storied family, raced as Capulet in Europe and was last seen winning the Listed Dee Stakes at Chester in May.
He now runs for Romantic Warrior’s owner Peter Lau, in partnership with Suki Tang. The three-year-old Hong Kong Derby prospect was due to run in a 1200m dirt track barrier trial under Hugh Bowman on September 7 but was withdrawn due to wet conditions.
“We’ll see how he goes when he has his first trial and then take it from there as to when he has his first race,” Shum said.
Shum and his Sha Tin neighbour, Tony Cruz, both have clearer plans regarding their respective stables’ big-name stars, Romantic Warrior and California Spangle.
Shum has the ‘Jockey Club Races’ on November 17 pencilled in for Romantic Warrior’s first run since he won the G1 Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo in June. Last year’s G1 Cox Plate hero is likely to step out in the G2 Jockey Club Cup, which he won two years ago, or the G2 Jockey Club Mile ahead of an attempt to win December’s G1 Hong Kong Cup for a third time.
After that, Dubai in March could be a target for Hong Kong’s Horse of the Year.
“Dubai is an option, and so is Japan and the Yasuda Kinen again, maybe, but the prize money in Japan isn’t as high. What I will say is that the treatment you get in Japan is first class, and the facilities are very good.”
Hong Kong’s Champion Sprinter California Spangle could head to Dubai next spring, too, the scene of his G1 Al Quoz Sprint triumph earlier this year. But, for now, he is being pointed towards an October 20 return in the G2 Premier Bowl.
The gelding is a proven top-class miler, having won the G1 Hong Kong Mile in 2022, but his trainer will keep him to shorter distances this term.
“I’m very happy with him at the moment, he’s going well, and I’ll be keeping him to the sprint races this season—we’ll keep him to sprinting all the time now,” Cruz told Idol Horse.
“He’ll run in the Group 2 in October, then the (Jockey Club Sprint) in November and the Hong Kong Sprint in December, that’s the plan. Dubai is a long way off, but that’s always in the back of my mind; he’s a healthy horse right now and if he’s racing well in Hong Kong when the time comes, we’ll aim for Dubai.”
