Voyage Bubble is likely to drop back in trip for April’s G1 Champions Mile after Ricky Yiu confirmed the preferred option for his stable star and cast doubts over a potential Triple Crown bid.
While Voyage Bubble swept to an impressive three-and-three-quarter-length win in February’s G1 Hong Kong Gold Cup over 2000m, Yiu intends to swerve a potentially red-hot G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (2000m) on April 27 and instead step the six-year-old back to a mile.
“He’s doing well and he’ll most likely go to the Mile,” Yiu told Idol Horse after he took out the feature race at Sha Tin on Saturday with Sunlight Power. “It looks like the [QE II] might be a very strong race and we know he’s a very good miler.”
After the great Golden Sixty’s retirement in September last year, Voyage Bubble announced himself as Hong Kong’s new top miler with a powerful G1 Hong Kong Mile success in December.
The six-year-old, who recorded his first top-level success in the absence of Golden Sixty in the G1 Stewards’ Cup (1600m) in 2024, doubled down in this year’s renewal of the Stewards’ Cup, retaining his crown under James McDonald with a commanding two-length victory.
The son of Deep Field only found Romantic Warrior too strong in the Hong Kong Gold Cup in 2024 but Voyage Bubble ensured he went one better in the contest this year despite being shuffled back to the rear of the field turning for home.
His success in the first two legs of Hong Kong’s Triple Crown – the Stewards’ Cup and Gold Cup – immediately sparked talk of Yiu potentially stepping his star up to 2400m for the first time in the final leg, the G1 Champions & Chater Cup on May 25.
But Yiu says he will decide whether Voyage Bubble enters uncharted territory and chases the HK$10 million bonus on offer in the Champions & Chater Cup after Champions Day.
If he were to line up in the 2400m Group 1, Voyage Bubble would bid to become only the second horse to win all three legs of the Triple Crown after Hong Kong legend River Verdon completed the feat in 1994.
“We’ll see after his run in April whether we go to the Champions & Chater Cup,” Yiu said. “There is a bonus for winning all three legs but you have to think about it because 2400m is a big ask.”
Despite the potential absence of Romantic Warrior in this year’s QE II Cup, Voyage Bubble is likely to avoid a strong international field in the contest, including last year’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Goliath and December’s G1 Hong Kong Cup runner-up Liberty Island.
It would be no surprise to see the Japanese contingent bolstered by the likes of Prognosis, who finished second to Romantic Warrior in the past two QE II Cups but could only manage sixth in the G2 Kinko Sho (2000m) on Sunday, and Tastiera, who was a length and a quarter adrift of Liberty Island in the latest renewal of the Hong Kong Cup.
In the Champions Mile, Voyage Bubble may face multiple Group 1 winner Mr Brightside and the William Haggas-trained Golden Eagle winner Lake Forest ∎
