Sha Tin latest ahead of FWD Champions Day: Japanese giants take on local titans

You can follow Matt's Hong Kong features throughout the week in the lead-up to Sunday's FWD Champions Day fixture at Sha Tin.

• European horse profiles as Royal Champion among those to impress
• Andrea Atzeni riding high in jockey rankings and seeking G1 win in Hong Kong
• Karl Burke relishing prospect of his first Hong Kong runner in FWD QEII Cup

A titanic tussle

Two Titans. It’s the message lit up with accompanying graphic across the FWD Champions Day's digital billboards throughout the concrete jungle en route from hotel to Sha Tin, and HK Jockey Club CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges was in no mood to play down their wider importance at his address to the assembled media on Friday morning.

Romantic Warrior and Ka Ying Rising will be long odds-on to deepen their respective legacies on Sunday make no mistake, but the European challenge isn’t without hope of snaring something significant and the closer we get to the event the more I warm to Japan’s three big-race giants.

Okay, Satono Reve has his work cut out versus KYR in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize but he’s got within three-quarters of a length of him on a couple of occasions in the past, and he’s a two-time Group 1 winner don't forget.

It’s also Joao Moreira against Zac Purton which always holds that bit extra here and, as briefly touched upon as our early bus gets snarled up in traffic heading into the Western Harbour Crossing tunnel towards the Yau Tsim Mong District, "certain horses almost have to be of interest at certain prices". Let's see just how big Satono Reve gets in the betting.

Masquerade Ball flies the circle of the sun flag for Japan in the QEII Cup and maybe it’s time we look a bit closer at that head second to Calandagan and start to weigh up what sort of chance the Longines World’s Best Racehorse of 2025 might have been given when it comes to ruffling a few Romantic Warrior feathers.

Slight word of warning, though, trainer Takahisa Tezuka – speaking through an interpreter – admits the horse was feeling “sensitive” after his flight and “a little bit unsettled due to the heat and humidity”, before stressing: “His appetite is improving more now and as I watched him this morning. He is in good condition.

“I always feel like we are the challenger here in Hong Kong, Romantic Warrior is a hero, but I hope to make it very competitive.”

A few ears prick again at his sign-off: “The owner is very keen to travel with him to Europe this summer.”

Mile high on intrigue

Champions Mile hope Jantar Mantar is rapidly getting a following on track this week, not least due to his striking appearance and the buy-in from connections to get on brand and deck him out in FWD orange.

Like Masquerade Ball, Jantar Mantar hasn’t had a prep run since the big meeting at Tokyo back in November but he’s looked particularly switched on in his morning exercise – all bright and bubbly to this relatively untrained eye.

Tomokazu Takano’s four-time Group 1-winning five-year-old is a big player in what looks a good betting race, also featuring the likes of Harry Bentley (Chancheng Glory) and Andrea Atzeni (Red Lion) aboard a couple of locally-trained outsiders, plus 26-year-old Australian Ethan Brown (Sunlight Power), still buzzing from his maiden HK winner on just his third ride at Happy Valley on Wednesday night.

Fellow Aussie Hugh Bowman, 19 years Brown's senior and last year’s Champions Mile-winning rider, had the choice of the Mark Newnham pair - Hong Kong Derby winner Invincible Ibis and My Wish. He explains his rationale for choosing the latter before nominating Little Paradise, reunited with Purton after a couple of disappointing efforts, as the one he fears most.

“I haven’t won on My Wish and I obviously won the Derby on Invincible Ibis,” Bowman said.

“It’s a bit easier that they’re in the same stable as I didn’t have to upset the trainer. But I was a little bit guided by Mark (Newnham) and we agreed that Invincible Ibis had by far a peak performance of his career (in winning the Derby) over 2000m. He’s now coming back in trip and going up, I’d say quite significantly, in class.

“So My Wish is proven at this level and I feel like there’s a sense of timing about his preparation to really peak on Sunday. I was really, really pleased with him in the prep race, his turn of foot was exceptional and that’s his biggest asset."

Timing is going to be crucial on the day too, fast and late the only way Hughie can play his cards from stall 10.

"I feel like the race is going to set up well for him to produce a strong finish," he said. "We’ve got a couple of foreign horses which always adds spice. Initially when we drew 10 I wasn’t quite happy but when I looked at it more and started to feel how the horses would fit into a running pattern, I do feel like some of those outside horses have got no choice but to roll forward.

“I won’t be one of those doing that, I’ll ride more conservatively.”

The day after the night before

Derek Leung declares himself “very confident” Lucky Sweynesse will be in the picture when it matters most, while a brief talk to James Eustace reveals Docklands to have settled in particularly sweetly on his latest trip to the Far East.

He’ll bridge the five-length gap with Jantar Mantar from their Kyoto meeting in November, by all accounts.

Finally, back to that quality QEII and a sigh of relief from afar for Karl Burke, news no doubt filtering through to Sandown Park from the New Territories that Thursday’s brutal breezer Royal Champion – on his own fairly titanic rise to stardom late in life – was a much more settled and quieter version of himself 24 hours on.

This place can do that to you.

You can follow Matt's Hong Kong features throughout the week in the lead-up to Sunday's FWD Champions Day fixture at Sha Tin.

• European horse profiles as Royal Champion among those to impress
• Andrea Atzeni riding high in jockey rankings and seeking G1 win in Hong Kong
• Karl Burke relishing prospect of his first Hong Kong runner in FWD QEII Cup