Race-eve scratching of Japanese visitor Salios reduces Hong Kong Mile field to nine

Salios is out of Sunday’s Group One Longines Hong Kong Mile (1,600m) after Jockey Club vets found the Noriyuki Hori-trained horse to be lame in his left front leg during a routine examination on Saturday.

The withdrawal of Salios reduces the Hong Kong Mile field to nine gallopers and results in John Size’s Waikuku and Annabel Neasham’s Laws Of Indices each moving one barrier closer to the running rail.

Overseas fixed-odds bookmakers had rated Salios as the second best of the three Japanese milers who accepted the challenge of beating Hong Kong hero Golden Sixty, assessing him superior to Danon Scorpion but inferior to Schnell Meister.

Hori had engaged Ryan Moore to steer Salios, whose scratching leaves Wednesday’s International Jockeys’ Championship joint winner, Silvestre de Sousa, as the only rider with a full book of four Group One assignments on Sha Tin’s biggest day.