500 at the Valley for Fownes as Moreira and Purton take three each
Explosive Witness (Star Witness) ensured Caspar Fownes’ moniker the ‘King of the Valley’ rang true at Happy Valley on Wednesday as the handler brought up a significant milestone with his 500th win at the city circuit in the Class 2 Chai Wan Kok Handicap (1000m).
Fownes has the most wins at the Valley of any active trainer on the roster, his heroics at the course include six wins in a day, and this term he has 17 wins under the Happy Valley lights – more than any other handler.
“I love this track – it’s been really good to me, I’m pretty good at placing my horses here and you need a lot of luck when you come here as well,” Fownes said.
Fownes was first licensed for the 2003/04 season and he landed the first of three champion trainer titles not long after in the 2006/07 season. Among 916 Hong Kong wins in total, he’s forged a brilliant career presenting heroes of the turf like Lucky Nine (Dubawi), The Duke (Danehill), Super Satin (Danehill Dancer), Green Birdie (Catbird) and Southern Legend (Not A Single Doubt).
“This is what the game is about, whether it’s Class 5 or Group 1 – I just love it, I’m passionate, I always give it everything,” Fownes added.
The leading trainer in the championship took his seasonal tally to 28 wins, following the earlier success of Royal Racer (Dreamscape), as he put the foot down in his bid for a fourth title with a midweek double.
“I said to my boys at the start of the season that I’m going for it this year, I think we’ve got the horses spread across the classes and I’m just going to put the foot down and see what happens – if I win, I win and if I don’t at least I gave it my best shot,” Fownes said.
A late rally from Explosive Witness sealed Fownes’ double, the six-year-old making it three wins in succession following an injury-plagued first three years in Hong Kong.
“That horse is special to me – we bought him from one run, he had a hefty price tag on him and he came here and he just drove me nuts – it broke your heart,” Fownes said.
The Australian import won on debut at Moonee Valley in March 2017 but had to wait three years to break his duck in Hong Kong.
“Every time you’d get him prepared for a race it’d just go by the wayside and you’d just have to build him up again,” Fownes said. “He missed well over a year. It was well documented and I just knew he had so much talent.
“It’s so nice to now see that when owners are patient and now he’s on his way to paying them back and he’s won his last three – he can certainly close off with a massive sectional here,” Fownes said.
The 86-rater scored at his first try in Class 2 on Wednesday against a solid field under Alexis Badel, who earlier kicked off his double with victory aboard the Frankie Lor-trained Virtus Star (Sebring) in the Class 5 Yau Kom Tau Handicap (1650m).
“The horse has been brave and courageous and he showed one more time he was very competitive and he’s in great form this season,” Badel said.
Virtus Star took 22 starts to snare his first Hong Kong win, but he now has three in succession and sits on the cusp of a step up to Class 4 with a pre-race rating of 31.
The win was the first of a double for Lor, who secured the second section of the Class 4 Tai Lam Handicap (1200m) with the lightly-raced Rewarding Together (Pierro) under Joao Moreira.
Moreira and Purton take three each
Championship leading jockey Joao Moreira bagged a treble on Wednesday, as did current champion Zac Purton. With six wins between the duo, they were only two of three jockeys to win a race on the card.
Moreira kicked off the evening with victory for Frankie Lor, but closed it out with powerful ally Caspar Fownes aboard Royal Racer in the Class 4 Tsing Lung Tau Handicap (1650m).
“I said to Caspar it wasn’t a pretty ride but very efficient because I had to come wide at the last corner, but I knew what I had underneath – I had a full horse underneath,” Moreira said.
“I pretty much looked after him in the first half and when I pulled him out and asked him to get going he responded very well and he ran away from them.”
Moreira’s three-timer featured a win aboard Ambitious Heart (Captain Sonador) for trainer David Ferraris in the first section of the Class 4 Tai Lam Handicap (1200m).
Meanwhile, Purton kicked off his treble in the first section of the Tsing Lung Tau Handicap (1650m) aboard Total Power (Dundeel) for trainer David Hall. The win was the jockey and trainer’s fourth together this term.
The five-year-old bay spent the off season at Conghua and bounced into the winner’s enclosure following two trials at his 11th Hong Kong start.
“He’s another horse that we have had in Conghua. He had his first trial there and I think it certainly hasn’t hurt him,” Hall said.
The gelding was a two-time winner pre-import, also placing in the Inglis 3YO Guineas (RL, 1400m) at Scone behind Wild Planet (Animal Kingdom), who subsequently won the Theo Marks Stakes (Gr 2, 1300m) at Rosehill.
“Every horse that has come back from Conghua has performed really well for us so we’re really happy with the way things are going up there and it certainly contributed to him winning first-up over 1650 metres with 133 pounds on his back,” Hall added.
Wednesday’s success was the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m)-winning handler’s 12th victory this season.
A well-judged front-running ride from Purton followed in the Class 3 Kap Shui Mun Handicap (1200m) aboard the Danny Shum-trained Grateful Heart (Written Tycoon), who made all for a tidy half-length success.
“He’s just taken a little bit of time to strengthen up, he showed some ability in his early trials but under race pressure he was a little bit weak,” Purton said. “This season he’s had the benefit of the off season and like a lot of horses he’s just come back better for it.”
Purton closed out his three with victory in the finale aboard ex-John Gosden trainee Holy Heart (Holy Roman Emperor), who scored back-to-back wins at the Valley by taking the Class 3 Sham Tseng Handicap (1650m) by a neck.
Hong Kong racing continues this Sunday, November 29, at Sha Tin.