Lyle Hewitson is back aboard Packing Hermod this weekend at Sha Tin as the exciting four-year-old aims towards the Hong Kong Classic Mile at the end of the month, and the rider anticipates a strong performance despite facing a tough challenge.
With star sprinter Ka Ying Rising set to swerve the Classic Mile, Packing Hermod is currently in ‘pole position’ among Hong Kong’s Four-Year-Old Series aspirants. But before the talented candidate steps out in the first of the series’ three legs, which will climax with the Hong Kong Derby in late March, he will shoulder top-weight of 130lb in an all-age Class 2 over 1400m.
That’s the way of it in Hong Kong’s handicap system: there are few places to hide for the emerging talents, they mix it with older and more experienced rivals, weighted according to rating, right from the start.
“He’s giving away a substantial amount of weight to the whole field and that’s not easy to do, especially as a young horse, but he deserves his rating through what he’s done. We’d like to just see a good run and if we win, brilliant, but we still expect him to put in a good performance,” Hewitson told Idol Horse.
“We wouldn’t want him to go into a Classic Mile off a disappointing run, so we still want to come through with a win, but knowing that it will be difficult, if he comes through it running up to the same sort of standard he has already and puts up a good performance, then there’ll be a lot to like about him going into the Four-Year-Old Series back at level weights.”
Hewitson knows that he might not be the one in the saddle when the Classic Mile does come around, with Zac Purton having “first call” on the horse. But this time the champion jockey will side with the John Size-trained Young Champion: such jockey swapping and switching is a common feature around the series each year, as top riders like Purton cover as many bases as they can.
Sunday’s 12-runner contest has six older horses against the younger group that includes high-profile raced import, or PP, Johannes Brahms, whose last start Class 3 win brings him into the race on bottom-weight of 120lb.
Johannes Brahms represents the burgeoning Pierre Ng stable and made his name as a high-class two-year-old trained by Aidan O’Brien before he was purchased and shipped east. Packing Hermod is a PPG – a horse unraced prior to import – from the Francis Lui stable, reigning champion trainer and the man who guided the great Golden Sixty, another PPG, to a Four-Year-Old Series clean-sweep and beyond.
“I prefer a PPG (for the Four-Year-Old Series),” Lui said. “If you’ve got a good quality PPG, you’ve got more time to prepare for the four-year-old races than you have with a PP. Packing Hermod is a good candidate because every time he has run, he has just surprised me, from Happy Valley to Sha Tin, up in distance, up in class, he has handled it all so far.”
Packing Hermod’s domestic rating is 93: he started out last June on the PPG starter-rating of 52, won in Class 4 and Class 3 from two back-end races under Purton, started this term on a mark of 74 and has since climbed the handicap through three races for two wins and a second. His latest outing, on the Hong Kong International Races undercard at the start of December, saw him win under the visiting Joao Moreira.
Hewitson was handed the race-day reins two starts back and finished second, but he has a close association having ridden Packing Hermod in much of his trackwork.
“He’s always had that quality about him and I think that he’s open to improvement to come,” Hewitson said. “From day one I always wanted to get on him, and obviously Zac always had the first call, but when he stepped out first time I was pretty confident that he would just go out and win, and I think he made it look a bit difficult around the turn that day because of that immaturity at the time, but every run he’s got that bit better.
“Before his first run, just from the trials and trackwork I did on him, I spoke with Francis and we felt he was a Four-Year-Old Series horse, so from day one he’s shown us that ability with his action. But he also felt like a horse that needed the racing to get mentally tougher, and a bit of time to get physically stronger, which I still think he will do.”
Packing Hermod is a son of the speedy Rubick but neither Hewitson nor Lui is concerned about stepping up to a mile on January 31, and the jockey isn’t too fazed at the thought of the horse going 2000m in the Derby either.
“The thing is he’s such a versatile horse as well: he’s won from on-pace at 1200 metres and he’s come from midfield and around them at 1400 metres, so I think that tactical versatility is a big strength, and then the fact that he has that speed in his legs if you need to place him and at the same time he is able to relax,” Hewitson said.
“I think the other series races, the Classic Cup and the Derby, I don’t know what his distance will be at this stage, but with the four-year-olds, you don’t necessarily have to be a 10-furlong horse to go towards the Derby: if you’re a good enough miler then that should stand you in good stead.
“I think he should have no problem with the mile and I guess Francis will assess his options from there.”
Meanwhile, the card also features a rarity, an ‘exclusive’ four-year-olds-only Class 3 handicap, offering lower-rated four-year-olds an opportunity to up their ratings and progress into the Classic Mile without having to face their elders. That contest will feature another high-profile PP, the Royal Ascot winner Mickley, out to make up for an unlucky traffic-congested defeat last time out.
Mickley started in Hong Kong with an assigned local rating of 76 and has climbed to 83 with more to come, judging by his three starts: a first-up fourth, an impressive win and then that 12th of 14 on New Year’s Day. He will carry 135lb against the likes of Markwin, Storm Rider and Steps Ahead, all aiming to improve their rating to cement Classic Mile participation.
Steps Ahead is also from the Lui stable, but there’s no doubt at this stage that Packing Hermod is his stable’s number one four-year-old. Whether the gelding will be ‘on pole’ for the Classic Series after Sunday remains to be seen, but so far he is handling the tough handicap arena like any Classic Mile hopeful must.
“I don’t know where the ceiling is or how much more there is to come,” Hewitson added, “but he has quality and I just think he’ll become more battle-hardened as he goes.” ∎
