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Writer's pictureAlan Aitken

HowdeepareHKsprinters?

While Ka Ying Rising is rightly the headline act, even Hong Kong's current sprinters away from the David Hayes-trained superstar are a fearsome bunch.

It is widely accepted that Australia provides many of the best turf sprinters but, with about 80% of runners in Hong Kong being Australian or New Zealand-bred, Hong Kong has also been a prolific producer of champion sprinters. Silent Witness, Lucky Sweynesse, Sacred Kingdom, Absolute Champion all held the official world's best sprinter title at times over the last 20 years, and others have been successful in G1 races around the world as well.

When Raging Blizzard landed his latest impressive victory in Class 2 on Sunday, he underlined the strength in depth at present, most of it coming from the John Size yard.

IT isn't that long ago Size was dominating sprints in Hong Kong over a couple of seasons, saddling up four and even five runners in G1 races regularly, with the likes of Mr Stunning, D B Pin, Beat The Clock, Hot King Prawn, Ivictory and others and winning more than his share. He is somewhere similar now - except for the important fact that that he lacks the number one seed, Ka Ying Rising.

Helios Express and Howdeepisyourlove chased home KYR in the G2 Jockey Club Sprint before Helios Express was an unlucky runner-up to KYR in the HK Sprint, with Howdeepisyourlove just out of the placings.

Howdeepisyourlove then went to the straight course for a narrow but outstanding win in the Bauhinia Sprint Trophy under top weight.

While Sunday's race was "only" a Class 2, history shows that any horse capable of a fast performance under weight in that grade is very capable in G1 company and Raging Blizzard ticked all those boxes.

In his wake in Raging Blizzard's last two Class 2 victories was another stablemate, Wunderbar, a very good horse himself with G1 aspirations, though his reputation has been overhyped by that glaring piece of form in his back story where he met KYR twice last season and beat him both times.

At the time, both were highly-talented but immature three-year-olds, both with a tendency to overrace but too fast and strong for the older rivals they met as they rose through the ranks in a couple of thrilling encounters.

Their paths diverged after that, with Wunderbar requiring surgery to remove a knee chip in late January and sidelined until September. While he has won 2 of his 5 starts this season, with excuses in the others, he has yet to recover the type of ratings he was posting at three.

Ka Ying Rising kept on, still making a few errors when he got his first G3 win as a 3yo but returning a more complete athlete after his summer break, relaxing and turning it on when asked. Whether Wunderbar gets back to last season's levels is an open question but his defeat at short odds again on Sunday was pace-related, after being with a lead group that simply went too fast, and jockey Zac Purton reported that the gelding was still not relaxing in his races. That part is more of a concern.

As to where they all go next, well Ka Ying Rising, Helios Express and Howdeepisyourlove all go to the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup on January 19, where we will also see Invincible Sage and Victor The Winner, The last two already have G1 wins to their names in HK, but have never posted the kind of Winning Factor ratings that we have seen from KYR and the Size horses.

In the background too is the forgotten champion, Lucky Sweynesse, a horse with a heafty string of A grade rating numbers and G1 victories but unseen at the races since April last year when he suffered a near front fetlock injury that required surgery.

He is on the comeback trail and had a very quiet, untesting barrier trial in mid-December but his return date isn't clear yet.

Size has suggested the Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai as a serious target for Howdeepisyourlove after he won the Bauhinia Sprint and it is a path he has trodden before, with Sight Success two years ago and Amazing Kids before that.

Amazing Kids looked a live chance to win in Dubai until he had the misfortune of striking a week with plenty of rain and a softer track that didn't suit him, while Sight Success, who was honest but a class below many of the others we're talking about, was beaten only a length in Dubai when fourth in 2023, then returned to finish fifth last year.

The Bauhinia Sprint has an erratic history since it began in 2000.

It quickly became a key G1 down the straight, with an honour roll including Silent Witness and Fairy King Prawn, but the Jockey Club downgraded it later to G3 and the standards have been inconsistent since, as our table of HK Winning Factor ratings for the last 10 winners shows.

But it remains the best option for the top sprinters over 1000m and the victory by Howdeepisyourlove was the best for a long time and one of the best ever, carrying top weight, spending half of the race getting from gate 1 across to the preferred outside rail lane then overhauling a very smart horse in Magic Control despite giving him 10 pounds.

He would go to Dubai as one of the best chances HK has sent there for the feature straight sprint that was won last year by California Spangle and previously by Joy N Fun and Amber Sky from Hong Kong.

Where we will ultimately see some of the other high-rating sprinters tested in"name" races remains to be seen but the ones we are seeing are certainly setting a high bar.



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