JP

Fun racing day! HKIR 2024! Congratulations to those Champion horses, especially Romantic Warrior. Happy to see magic man, Joao Moreira, got a win in HK again!

@rdrisms Beyond Orfevre's achievement

If horse racing was covered like other sports on social media

@Ascot Satono Reve and Joliestar? 1 1/4 mile??!!

Royal Ascot Group 1 entries are in! Among the star names... 🇫🇷 DARYZ 🇯🇵 FOREVER YOUNG 🇬🇧 OMBUDSMAN 🇮🇪 MINNIE HAUK 🇦🇺 JOLIESTAR 🇯🇵 SATONO REVE 🇫🇷 LAZZAT 🇯🇵 LUGAL 🇬🇧 TRAWLERMAN 🇬🇧 FIELD OF GOLD

@WHR Although I am a fan of Forever Young's sire, Real Steel, which was a G1 Dubai Turf champion, I still think FY has no chance to win in Ascot.

No jokes this time 😶 FOREVER YOUNG フォーエバーヤング has been granted entry into the G1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot… 👑 Will the Japanese superstar make the trip? 🤔 #フォーエバーヤング

@scottbailey23 @A_Evers @HKJC_Racing @zpurton Better ask J Mac😅, who rode Wunderbar and beaten KYR twice! Same horse same rider won twice....🙈 racing.hkjc.com/en-us/local/in… racing.hkjc.com/en-us/local/in…

The question everyone is asking is how do they beat Ka Ying Rising? They may have to implement handicap starts like they do in UK Greyhounds. #kayingrising @HKJC_Racing #HKRacing @zpurton

@fagnestachyon I highly recommend Japanese owners to hire Joao Moreira, who was the rider of Satono Reve yesterday, in some G1 races especially those in HK.

I love Romantic Warrior to death, he made even more history & proven beyond doubt that he's one of the best horses of the 2020s era but my night was still ruined bc of a certain jockey's ride, Le Nightmare indeed

@rdrisms racingpost.com/profile/horse/…

@rdrisms .... no breeding technology and no talents. Under this premise, horse owners prefer to buy gelding with a cheaper price given breeding is "meaningless" here. HK had a stallion, Lucky Owner, which was a G1 winner (sire: Danhill). It was a rare case here

jokes aside, the juxtaposition of HK racing's gelding culture (borne out of necessity) and JP keiba's borderline obsession with intact horses continues to fascinate me

@HongKongJacko @Kontenasan_bf I witnessed Lord Kanaloa, Chautauqua, Silent Witness and few other sprinters in Shatin live, Lord Kanaloa was still the most impressive until KYR.

@Kontenasan_bf It's why I rate Lord Kanaloa, he won the Sprint twice, and in very impressive fashion, against top class fields I can't get too excited about the comparisons across the years, but Vain, Black Caviar, Lord Kanaloa, and KYR would do me.

The more I watch Hong Kong racing from the outside, the more I feel that people reach for words that are too small. Home advantage. Prize-money. Specialization. None of them is wrong. None of them is enough. Hong Kong is specialized, but specialization is not the same thing as being narrow. If anything, it feels like a place that has spent years asking the same racing question with unusual seriousness. In Hong Kong, that question is asked again and again: can this horse win here, in this rhythm, against these rivals, under this pressure? The answer is not found once. It is adjusted, corrected, and sharpened over time. A visitor may bring ability. It may bring class. It may even bring the better horse. What it cannot bring is the memory of having answered that question here, again and again. That memory lives in pace, position, timing, and in the small decisions that look ordinary only after someone has learned them. And the best of Hong Kong racing has shown that this is not merely a home language. Romantic Warrior and Ka Ying Rising have taken that quality abroad. That matters, because it reminds me not to confuse specialization with limitation. So when a visitor loses in Hong Kong, I do not want to reach first for the word failure. Sometimes the better word is weight. The weight of repetition. The weight of local knowledge. The weight of a place that has learned exactly what kind of excellence it wants. That specialization is not mysterious. Hong Kong has no domestic breeding industry, its racing is concentrated around two racecourses, and the prize-money is high enough for the whole system to take selection seriously. The result is a racing culture built around one sharp task: find the horse that can thrive here, then make it sharper. And this is why I think Hong Kong form deserves more respect. In Hong Kong, Hong Kong horses are the hardest horses in the world to beat, especially at sprint distances. Defeating them there should be treated as a major honour, not merely a rich victory. For a sprinter, I would even argue that it can carry breeding significance: it means passing one of the clearest tests of sprinting quality in specialization racing.

@Kontenasan_bf @LongBallToNoOne Such a high density small city fitting with about 7.5m population, no space farmland, limited rural area, no space for horse breeding business, limited racing facilities, but with HK$138.85 billion (in season 24-25). I am proud of HK's horse racing achievements.

@Kontenasan_bf @LongBallToNoOne Total area of HK: about 1,114.57 sq km While the other countries with horse breeding business... Australia: about 7,692,024 sq km UK: about 241,930 sq km US: about 9,833,520 sq km Japan:   about 377,975 sq km What the others expect HK horse racing business?

@rdrisms Miss this beauty, Agnes Digital!

Japan at HKIR: Vase: 5 wins/19 attempts/35 horses (13 in the money) Sprint: 3 wins/22 attempts/45 horses (6 ITM) Mile: 4 wins/31 attempts/61 horses (15 ITM) Cup: 8 wins/26 attempts/51 horses (21 ITM) Overall strike rate (winners/runners): 20/192, 10.4%

What?! 😳😳😱😱 Black Caiver is still the best. KYR can compare to her but cant exceed her, unless they really race together 🙈

@AitchBeeBee As a Hongkonger, I also think Calandagan is the best turf router in the world currently. If Calandagan ranked 130 while Romantic Warrior got 129 then.

This is racing and breeding!!! Not those geldings in Hong Kong!!!

Most earning racehorse in the world! Romantic Warrior! Not much😌, just €29.6m 😳😱😂😂

@gkxlsi The race of Little Bridge more than 20 runners, so? Seem like only few were racing.......the others 🫢

@gkxlsi Don't too proud of Ascot's standard. It is a joke too! HK's 2nd tier horses beaten them twice already! 🙈🙈 wake up yet? youtu.be/I71y5IX-P9U?si… youtu.be/uPPr4r3A7t8?si…

Ka Ying Rising is ridiculous, no doubt… but can we all relax a bit Win streaks in HK sprints ≠ Ascot in June Do it at Royal Ascot under pressure against proper depth and then we can start the “best ever” chat… until then it’s just bullying his own backyard

@geoffbanksbet Um..... maybe you are right, but HK shouldnt be included in your "Asian". At least two horses won in Ascot: youtu.be/I71y5IX-P9U?si… youtu.be/uPPr4r3A7t8?si… More they were not the best sprinters in HK, just 2nd tier.

Hmm Asian horses don't fare well at Royal Ascot, but..

@Tinky47flat @A_Evers I am not joking, some ppl bet $1M on KYR win, and won $50k in few minutes 🙈

@Tinky47flat @A_Evers You may ask, 94/97m bet on KYR win, the total payout (exclude admin fee and tax to government) is 94 x 1.05 = 98.7, which over the pool. Where the money from? It was subsidized by Hong Kong Jockey Club. HKJC surely lost money on that race.

‡ Ka Ying Rising – Again Ho-hum, another dominant display, and yet another course record. It's difficult to find new superlatives to describe his brilliance. But here's a remarkable tidbit from his most recent victory: he was sent off at odds of 1/100 – ONE TO ONE HUNDRED, and the second favorite was 89/1 (results image attached)!