Free betting tips for the HKIR card at Sha Tin | The Hong Kong File

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Rising, Romantic and Riffa to roar on a day of Sha Tin showdowns

There are two ways of looking at the last global Flat racing Festival of 2025.

On one hand, we have two jollies who are nigh-on unbackable on a Longines HKIR card that has struggled to attract international A-Listers.

But we also have a pair of genuine global aces topping the bill in the Sprint and the Cup and enough high-class horses to make the Mile and the Vase compelling on multiple levels.

Colour pieces on Ka Ying Rising and Dylan Browne McMonagle are in the bag - along with some punchy thoughts from the man who runs the show - and the markets are taking shape for four G1s worth £12.6m.

The weather is cooling down but the G1 action will be hotting up from 6am on Sky Sports Racing, so all we need to do now is finalise a punting plan.

Joseph and Dylan to crack the Vase for Ireland

• 2 – Al Riffa
• 6 – Urban Chic
• 3 – Giavellotto
• 5 - Sosie

Most HK horses wouldn’t get 2400m in a horsebox and the longest race on the HKIR menu (due off at 6.10 GMT) looks bound for export as usual courtesy of some powerful Euros or one interesting Japanese visitor.

Los Angeles has the highest rating (123) but his Tatts Gold Cup win seems a long while ago now and his tame retreat in the Arc makes Giavellotto, Al Riffa and Sosie (all rated 120) are the trio to note.

Giavellotto scythed through heavy traffic to score in style on this day last year and returns as good as ever after a light 2025 campaign.

Sosie is a proven G1 force who has run very well in two Arcs – just ahead of Giavellotto at Longchamp this year - and Al Riffa ran away with the Irish Leger before getting little chance to show to best advantage from a high draw in a steadily run Melbourne Cup.

In short, this has the makings of a genuine 7-2 the field G1 belter.

I don’t fancy Los Angeles at all, while Goliath didn’t shine here in April, and although Giavellotto did me a huge turn last year he’s a much shorter price now in what looks a deeper field. Sosie is very reliable and sure to pick up another good cheque, but AL RIFFA and URBAN CHIC appeal as a potent value pair against the field.

Al Riffa is surely much better than he showed at Flemington and his Curragh romp showed he’s at the peak of his powers aged five for Joseph O’B and Dylan BM, while Urban Chic hasn’t come with the fanfare that precedes some Japanese raiders but isn’t far behind the best of these based on his emphatic Leger win and a fine fifth back at 2000m in a strong Tenno Sho last month.

Rising tide to sweep Sprint foes away

• 1 – Ka Ying Rising
• 6 – Fast Network
• 2 – Satono Reve
• 4 – Helios Express

Unbackable and as close to unopposable as you will ever find in an international G1 race.

That’s the simple summary of KA YING RISING as he bids to complete a flawless 2025 in the Longines Hong Kong Sprint (6.50) and the rest will be playing for remote places if the world’s best sprinter scales the heights he reached in the Everest and the Jockey Club Sprint.

David Hayes’s gelding had to work harder than expected after being pressured round the home turn on this day last year and, as I gaze at a Tote screen reading 1.05 the jolly and an astonishing 33-1 bar one, the temptation to seek a flaw is obvious.

But flaws are hard to find in a horse who does a fair impression of Dayjur (look him up, kids) in the way that he blends elegant grace with destructive power.

Japanese raider Win Carnelian and Beauty Waves will go with him early but there tends to be a price to pay for trying to match strides with a champ who can breeze through the first 800m in 23s and 22s and quicken again when it matters.

Helios Express and Satono Reve filled the placings last year and should go well again but Fast Network recorded a career best to chase KYR home in the Jockey Club Sprint and he might prove a fair Quinella call again.

Power to the people

There are various ways of looking at this year’s Mile (8.00) as the shape of the race has ebbed and flowed in recent weeks.

Last year’s winner Voyage Bubble and Japanese raider Soul Rush (second and fourth here in 2023 and 2024) will set the bar high if they deliver their best.

And pocket rocket My Wish remains open to improvement after faltering late in a fiercely run Jockey Club Mile on a day when the mercurial Galaxy Patch finally found a race that played to his strengths.

The Bubble is back at a mile having been blown away by the mighty Romantic Warrior over 2000m in the Jockey Club Cup, while Soul Rush showed what he’s capable of when nailing the world’s highest earning horse late in the Dubai Turf back in April.

But I wonder whether the gap between the market leaders and a couple of others is narrower than the betting suggests?

SUNLIGHT POWER came home powerfully under Soumillon to finish a close third behind Red Lion and Voyage Bubble on his sole G1 outing here in April and he’s come back as good as ever this term, finishing strongly again to split Galaxy Patch and My Wish in the Jockey Club Mile.

The fact that Soumillon has flown back for the ride is a plus. Add in the likelihood of a strong pace set by late sub Pray For Mir and Copartner Prance and Ricky Yiu’s gelding starts to look a lively longshot at double figure odds.

• 9 – Sunlight Power
• 2 – Voyage Bubble
• 5- Galaxy Patch
• 10- My Wish

Wonderful Warrior heads back into battle

Heroic victories, painful defeats, a few battle scars followed by a chance to do something unprecedented on a familiar field.

ROMANTIC WARRIOR has lived up to his name perfectly over the last few years – beating the best in Australia and Japan before going agonisingly close in Saudi and Dubai – and most people think he’s impossible to oppose in his bid for an unprecedented fourth consecutive Hong Kong Cup at 8.40.

And they’re probably right.

James McDonald feels the Warrior’s smooth Jockey Club Cup win on his return from a lengthy absence was “the most perfect prep run you could possibly ask for” and, with 8lb plus in hand on global ratings, he remains a very hard one to oppose even at 1.3 or shorter if the jollies have been obliging.

But the Forecast and Quinella pools will be loaded here.

A headstrong nature means it’s hard to know what to expect from last year’s BC Turf runner-up Rousham Park, but Bellagio Opera has been very consistent in high-class Japanese races and Irish hope Galen is fresh from a career best in Bahrain and could hang on to a fair slice of this £4m pie if he gets a chance to kick for home off a steady pace.

• 1- Romantic Warrior
• 2 – Bellagio Opera
• 4 – Galen
• 7 - Quisisana

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