Local sprinting sensation Aethero ousted by Moreira on Beat The Clock

Umbrellas are up but not because of the forecast rain which fails to materialise during the afternoon. Instead, they're for protection from a hot sun which has been beating down on Sha Tin for the last few days. According to the guidebook, December is supposed to be one of Hong Kong's cooler months, with an average temperature of 17 degrees, but…

Hideyuki Mori blazed a trail for Japanese racing back in the 1990s, and after a 27-year absence, the veteran trainer is back at Sha Tin for another tilt at glory. Much like December 1995 when Mori took out the Group Two Hong Kong International Cup (1800m) - now the Group One Hong Kong Cup (2000m) - with $38 chance Fujiyama Kenzan, the 64-year-old…

Japanese racing expert Toshi Onikubo has nominated emerging stayer Lebensstil as his country's best chance of winning a Longines Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) feature event for the fifth consecutive year. Onikubo - in Hong Kong to watch 14 Japanese gallopers attempt to add to the Land of the Rising Sun's 20 HKIR victories, which include at…

Japanese raider Lebensstil is favourite with Ladbrokes.com.au for the Hong Kong Vase (2400m) this afternoon at Sha Tin. The last start Group ll winner looks primed for the 2400m assignment and gets Joao Moreira, who rides most horses well, but especially a Japanese trained horse. He's the one tipped to win, sitting as a $3 favourite. Another…

The now eight-year-old holds the record for the most Group 1 wins in Hong Kong (nine) and will attempt to join Good Ba Ba as the only three-time winner of the Hong Kong Mile. A winner of 25 of his 29 career starts, he first won the mile in 2020, before collecting his second in 2021. Golden Sixty was surprisingly upstaged by California Spangle in…

Russian Emperor's lucrative Middle Eastern mission reaches a crescendo at Meydan on Saturday night and while the two-time Group One winner will have his work cut out to add another top-level victory to his resume, connections will be hopeful of securing their slice of the Group One Dubai Sheema Classic's US$6 million bounty. After taking out the…

A visit to the free-to-enter Hong Kong Racing Museum which overlooks the bend after the stands at Happy Valley racecourse gives an interesting insight into the sport's development in the former British colony. Racing in Hong Kong began as an amateur form of entertainment among the ex-pats in those colonial days but, for what remains a small-scale…

The biggest crowd in more than three years is expected to converge on Sha Tin on Sunday to see Golden Sixty chase history in the Group One Hong Kong Mile. Good Ba Ba is the only horse with three feature wins at the Longines Hong Kong International Races (HKIR), and he achieved the feat Golden Sixty is attempting to match this weekend - a Mile…

HONG KONG, HONG KONG - DECEMBER 09: xxx during the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin Racecourse on December 09, 2018 in Hong Kong. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images) Selections by Adam Cusworth The Hong Kong International Raceday has arrived with four Group Ones on the menu, highlighted by the HK$34million Longines Hong Kong…

The 2022 Hong Kong Vase (2400m) is the first of four Group 1 races on Hong Kong International Race-day and it's for the stayers over the 2400m. It's been a race traditionally dominated by the international raiders from both Europe and Japan, with last year's champion Glory Vase looking to defend his crown and chalk up his third win in the…

The week of the Longines Hong Kong International Races is finally upon us and human and equine stars are descending on the city from across the globe. Here's a few (educated?) guesses about what could unfold during the biggest week in Hong Kong racing. Much has been made of Joao Moreira's impending return, and the Magic Man added another element of…

Joao Moreira has not ridden in Hong Kong since September 21 due to a recurring hip injury which saw him sidelined before he decided to return home to Brazil for further treatment and rehabilitation … and also, most importantly, to be with his family who had already gone back to Brazil at that time. Moreira then shocked many people by handing in his…

They sent him around as second favourite in last year's Hong Kong Sprint and local punters are again expected to pile into Classique Legend to kick off the busiest run of Australian spring simulcasts since 2017. The Jockey Club's punt on The Everest could not be looking any better days out from the race, with Boniface Ho Ka-kui's striking grey set…

Exultant (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) was a well-backed third in the 2018 BMW Hong Kong Derby before winning the G3 Queen Mother Memorial Cup H. and finishing runner-up in the G1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup. Three years on, South American import Panfield (Chi) (Lookin At Lucky), who racked up a trio of top-level successes on home soil prior…

He walked away happy when Exultant copped gate 14 for last year's Group One Hong Kong Vase so it was never going to take much to please Tony Cruz at Thursday morning's barrier draw at Sha Tin. And with the five-time Group One winner facing only six rivals as he bids to become the first local horse to win the 2400m contest twice, Cruz expects things…

Mr Stunning rolled back the years in the Chairman's Sprint Prize, the first of three Group 1s on Champions Day at Sha Tin on Sunday. He became only the third seven-year-old to win the race in its 41-year history and was sent off at long odds after failing to get his nose in front in seven starts since December 2018. Mr Stunning, who finished second…

Hong Kong race fans are probably the most enthusiastic punters in the world, but as well as the massive betting handle that Sunday's excellent 10-race card at Sha Tin will generate, there's an even bigger focus of attention in reigning Horse of the Year Beauty Generation. The John Moore-trained gelding has dominated the mile division over the past…

Beauty Generation, shown during morning track work Thursday, is one of many headliners on the Champions Day program Sunday at Hong Kong's Sha Tin Racecourse. Photo courtesy of Hong Kong Jockey Club April 24 (UPI) -- With much of the world's horse racing still out of action because of the coronavirus, Hong Kong steps up this weekend with a trio of…

Joao Moreira: four clear of jockeys' title rival Zac Purton There is one week to go until Hong Kong's stars do battle for three Group 1s on Champions Day and the stars are flexing their muscles. Weighing room aces Joao Moreira and Zac Purton continue to trade blows at the top of the jockeys' table while several familiar British faces are on show in…

Joao Moreira and Beat The Clock have teamed up to win Sunday's International Sprint at Hong Kong's Sha Tin after Australia's group 1 winner In Her Time was scratched. On Saturday, it was announced that the Kris Lees-trained mare sustained a quarter crack in her near left front foot and would undergo a veterinary examination the following…

Although Hong Kong is home to less than 1 percent of the world's horse population, local runners made history last year at the Hong Kong International Races by sweeping all four of the horse races, a first for the event. The four winners - Beauty Generation, Exultant, Glorious Forever and Mr Stunning - are all back this year to defend their titles…

Addressing your thoughts, questions and statements about Hong Kong racing. Have something to say? Send a tweet to @SCMPRacingPost. It almost seemed too good to be true and, in the end, it was. The prospect of a Sha Tin showdown between Japanese superstar Almond Eye and Aidan O'Brien's four-time Group One winner Magical was dangled in front of Hong…

As the usual round of big-race decisions rapidly approach for Joao Moreira, Neil Callan's win on Beauty Only was a reminder that being without a seat when the music stops isn't always the worst place to be in this game of musical chairs. Sometimes Hong Kong racing's jockey merry-go-round just doesn't matter and for all of the decisions Moreira has…

Last week, The Griffin looked at the markets on the four big races last year through four of the world's leading betting mediums. The big story was the discrepancies in certain markets around the world, with horses like Buffering (5.9 in Australia, over 40-1 in Hong Kong) and Cirrus Des Aigles (3.3 in France, 17.3 in Australia) showing the…