Gold-Fun on target in 2013 Group 2 Sha Tin Trophy

Gold-Fun (123lbs) maintained his impressive early season form with victory in a warm renewal of the HKG2 Oriental Watch Sha Tin Trophy (Handicap) at Sha Tin racecourse this afternoon, Sunday, 27 October.

Richard Gibson’s charge headed into the mile feature off the back of an impressive win first up in the HKG3 National Day Cup (1400m) on 1 October, and made his sharpness tell with a decisive success that reinforced his claim as Hong Kong’s young pretender in the mile division.

“He’s certain to go for the LONGINES Hong Kong Mile, although I wouldn’t say we’re certain to go for the race on November 17th (G2 Jockey Club Mile). I think the horse has probably had a good prep – we’ll just play that one by ear,” said Gibson.

Gold-Fun was a reluctant leader in the early strides under Olivier Doleuze, who was pleased to see Andreas Suborics bustle past him to face the breeze aboard Helene Spirit (125lbs) after 200m. Doleuze tracked the pace-setter easily along the rail in third as Douglas Whyte posted the four-year-old’s stablemate, Akeed Mofeed (121lbs), on his flank in second spot.

As the tempo quickened into the home stretch, Doleuze eased Gold-Fun between those two rivals and quickened to the lead approaching the 200m mark. Helene Spirit dug deep but was no match for last season’s HKG1 Hong Kong Classic Mile hero, who pulled half a length to the good to score in a time of 1m 34.05s. Real Specialist (123lbs) broke from the pack to claim third, a further length and a quarter back.

“It’s great,” added Gibson. “I thought Gold-Fun was very convincing today and I thought every stride he made today was going to be a winning stride.”

“Olivier rode him beautifully, with plenty of confidence and I thought today was even more impressive than last time. There’s plenty left in the tank, he’s a young horse, there’s a lot of racing left in him and he really is turning into a top performer. We’ll see when we come to equal weights but today he always had the advantage at the weights against the top horses.”

 

Source: http://campaign.hkjc.com/en/2013-st-trophy/2013-news-details.aspx?in_file=st_news_2013102701936.html