Steve reports from Hong Kong ahead of Sunday’s Audemars Piguet QEII Cup
This year, the locals headed by Werther (Tavistock) – who chases back to back wins in the race – and Shamardal’s (Giant’s Causeway) much publicised son Pakistan Star dominate the betting along with Japan’s Neorealism (Neo Universe) who is rated – market wise – well above The United States (Galileo) from Australia and Dicton (Lawman) from France.
Victory for the Tony Cruz trained Hong Kong Derby runner-up Pakistan Star would, of course, be another one for the ‘locals’ but have an international flavour as he was bred in Germany, sold in France and is now raced by Hong Kong’s Kerm Din whose father emigrated from Pakistan.
It would be fitting too as the German-bred Silvano (Lomitas) was, in 2001, the winner of that first APQEII Cup with international Group One ranking. Pakistan Star was bred in Germany at Gestüt Wittekindshof which is about three hours, by road, from where Silvano was born and raised at Andreas Jacob’s Gestut Fahrhof Stud.
Pakistan Star was named Ninas Shadow as a yearling and bought by the HKJC’s Mark Richards for €180,000 at the Arqana Deauville August Yearling Sale. He was later sold for around four times that amount at Hong Kong’s International Sale in March 2016 and it is well documented how he became an internet sensation after his debut last-to-first win in July that year.
And while no Hong Kong Derby (Listed, 2000m) placegetter has gone on to win the APQEII Cup it would be foolish to underestimate the four-year-old in the absence of the Hong Kong Derby winner Rapper Dragon (Street Boss) who waits for Sunday week’s Champions Mile (Gr 1, 1600m). Four Hong Kong Derby winners have gone on to claim the APQEII.
His German-bred Hong Kong-winning predecessor Silvano, by Lomitas, is well remembered – along with French rival Jim And Tonic (Double Bed) whom he defeated in the APQEII Cup – as one of the first international globetrotters of world racing.
While others before them had undertaken ‘hit and run’ raids, few if any had travelled and raced as often or as widely as Silvano for Andreas Wohler and Jim And Tonic who was trained by Francois Doumen in France.
“He was the first good horse I bred,” Andreas Jacobs later reflected of Silvano.
“He won the Arlington Million in the USA, the APQEII Cup in Hong Kong and the Singapore Cup. He was also fourth in the Cox Plate and third in the Dubai Sheema Classic, so he was an international superstar, renowned as much for his toughness and constitution as his indomitable will and extraordinary ability to accelerate in an instant. I will always respect him as the consummate traveller with a perfect temperament.”
The 2001 event proved to be some edition of the race which was being sponsored for the third time by Audemars Piguet.
The runner-up Jim And Tonic had won the Dubai Duty Free at his previous start and had been runner-up in the previous year’s APQEII Cup. Not to mention that he’d won it the year before, under Audemars Piguet’s initial branding, and beaten Indigenous (Marju) who was third to Silvano. In Hong Kong, Jim And Tonic also won the 1999 Hong Kong Cup (Gr 1, 2000m) and the 1998 Hong Kong Bowl (forerunner to the Champions Mile).
Fourth, behind Silvano, was Electronic Unicorn (Housebuster) who was soon after transferred to the John Size stable and would go on to win two Steward’s Cups (HK Gr 1, 1600m); a Chairman’s Trophy (HK Gr 2, 1600m), the Champions Mile and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (HK Gr 2, 1600m).
Fifth was Oriental Express (Green Desert) who had won the 1998 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (HK Gr 1, 2000m) and sixth was Daliapour (Sadler’s Wells) won the 2000 Hong Kong Vase (Gr 1, 2400m).
Silvano returned to Hong Kong in December to contest the Hong Kong Cup after performing with distinction in the USA and Australia. Alas, there was no fairytale ending as he finished 11th behind Japan’s Agnes Digital (Crafty Prospector) with his old sparring partner Jim And Tonic finishing fifth at his last appearance at Sha Tin.
It was Silvano’s last racecourse appearance but a stud career beckoned in the country of his birth. Soon after, in 2003, he began shuttling to the Jacobs family-owned Maine Chance Farm in the Western Cape, South Africa.
Silvano had considerable success at stud and was a multiple champion sire in South Africa where his offspring three times claimed the Durban July (Gr 1, 2200m) – the country’s most sought after race. In 2013, Silvano’s son Heavy Metal won the Durban July, and then 24 hours another son Lucky Speed won Germany’s premier classic, the Deutsches Derby (German Derby) (Gr 1, 2400m) in Hamburg.
Silvano’s highest stakes-winning son Vercingetorix, bred in South Africa and trained by Mike de Kock, lined up in the 2014 APQEII Cup after running second in the Dubai Duty Free (Gr 1, 1800m) and finished a gallant third behind local star Designs On Rome (Holy Roman Emperor) who was then at the peak of his powers.
A stud career, of course, does not await the already gelded Pakistan Star but he will be well feted – beyond his already wide acclaim – should he win on Sunday. And my feeling is that the small field with be an advantage for him and that – for all the hype – we might not yet have seen the best of him.
His 2017 international rivals have not yet been extended on the track. In fact, The United States will appear on the Sha Tin track for the first time this morning after arriving on Monday night.
France’s Dicton, who was placed behind Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) in last year’s Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) (Gr 1, 2100m) and runner-up first time out this year in the Prix Edmond Blanc (Gr 3, 1600m), has done little more than trot and canter on the all weather on Monday and Tuesday and Neorealism was similarly restricted to light work on Tuesday.
Diction is raced by Hong Kong based Singaporean Robert Ng who also has the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Convey (Dansili) entered for for the Champions Mile.
The Noriyuki Hori-trained Neorealism is the best credentialled of the visitors given his all the way win over former, almost all-conquering stablemate Maurice (Screen Hero) in last August’s Sapporo Kinen (Gr 2, 2000m) which was his first win at Group level. He returned, in 2017, with an excellent win in the Nakayama Kinen (Gr 2, 1800m).