Best Ballydoyle battalion ever to descend on Hong Kong
LEGENDARY, record-breaking trainer Aidan O’Brien is certain he has brought his strongest team ever to attack the four Group 1 races in Sunday’s LONGINES Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin.
He is the only trainer this year to have runners in all four of the big races, with Warm Heart in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase; Aesop’s Fables in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint; Cairo in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile and Luxembourg in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup.
“I think there is no doubt that it is,” replied O’Brien when asked if this was the best team he’d brought to Hong Kong during a press conference at Sha Tin on Thursday morning.
“It’s very difficult to win races here and you don’t come with second-raters.”
Luxembourg and the filly Warm Heart are regarded as perhaps his best chances of claiming more Group One glory, but the other two cannot be discounted in the highly competitive fields where the locals and a contingent of Japanese horses will also mount serious challenges.
“The plan with Luxembourg was that he would always go to Ascot and then come here but he missed Ascot and has come here,” said O’Brien.
“The filly [Warm Heart] is a very smart filly, she’s progressed with every run. There is definitely a line in her form to suggest she’s better at a mile and a half than a mile and a quarter.”
Warm Heart has already scored two Group One victories this year – the Yorkshire Oaks and the Prix Vermeille.
On her most recent run, she finished a neck second to Inspiral in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Santa Anita, having won five of her six previous starts.
O’Brien has won three of the past eight editions of the Hong Kong Vase with Highland Reel (2015 and 2017) and Mogul (2020), all with Ryan Moore on board.
Moore will ride all four of O’Brien’s horses and has worked hard to get down to Warm Heart’s allocated weight of 8st5lbs after he was injured in a fall in Japan last month.
“When you seeing Ryan doing 8st5lbs, since he came to us I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do that,” said O’Brien
“I was talking to him yesterday and he said his weight is very good.”
Wednesday night’s Happy Valley meeting was the first time Moore had ridden since his fall in Japan and he bagged a winner with M Unicorn in the second leg of the International Jockeys’ Championship.
The pair will be hoping they can continue their fine record in the Vase on Sunday morning.
LONGINES Hong Kong International Races day at Sha Tin begins at 4:25am on Sunday, with all 10 races live on Sky Sports Racing.