Longines Hong Kong Cup
Longines Hong Kong Cup
On a day when plenty of the major prizes went the way of horses ridden on the speed, Time Warp and Zac Purton strolled away with the biggest one of all, the HK$25m (S$4.3m) Longines Hong Kong Cup, easily holding Werther for a two and a quarter length success over the 2,000m, with Neorealism leading home a Japanese trio for the minor money.
Purton was completing his grand slam of all four Longines Hong Kong International Races and when asked if he saw another horse, he joked: "A couple behind the gates and then pulling up but I don't know where they were in between."
Tony Cruz was adding to the two Longines Hong Kong Cup wins of California Memory in 2011 and 2012 and must have been delighted as Time Warp coasted along the Sha Tin back straight under minimal pressure from Smart Layer and Neorealism.
Turning for home, Werther emerged from the chasing pack but by then, Purton had let Time Warp engage overdrive and last year's Hong Kong Horse of the Year was never closer than at the line.
"He has got a high cruising speed and he can kick off that," said Purton of Time Warp. "When nothing attacks him, you can see how good he is."
Purton revealed that his confidence in Time Warp - whose three previous attempts in Group company had yielded a third and two seconds - had only increased after going through the race with Cruz.
"I couldn't see much speed on paper before the race so, unless anyone did anything differently, I thought I might be able to get my way in front," said Purton.
"I had a very easy time and that was key to the result. Tony has a great deal of confidence in his horse and he rang me this morning specifically to talk about this one so I thought he must have been pretty keen on him."
COLLECTION
Purton's Longines International Races collection started with Ambitious Dragon's 2012 win in the Mile, continued with Dominant's Vase in 2013 and was three-quarters complete by the time Aerovelocity took the first of his two Sprint successes in 2014. "The jigsaw is complete so I am pretty happy about that," he said.
The jockey had followed Cruz's instructions to the letter. "I told Zac to stay cool, ride the way I want this horse to be ridden," said Cruz, the former big race jockey never far from the surface.
"Zac did exactly what I wanted him to do. He just took him to the front and nobody was going to catch him. I said, 'just wait for them to come, and when they push you, go.
"When they came, he just took off."
Time Warp was cleverly campaigned by Newmarket training legend Sir Mark Prescott, who was at Sha Tin to witness the son of Archipenko's international coming-of-age.
The trainer added: "It's no big surprise to me. The horse has been pushing me to run in this class of race and I believe there is a lot of horse in him. The 2,000 metres around this course is perfect for him. If he has it his way, nobody can beat him."
The six-strong European challenge failed to play a serious part in the finish, with Poet's Word the best of the sextet when running on for sixth after being seven-wide turning into the straight. - HKJC
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