爆冷成為06-07年度馬王？
Pataca to end successful season as the undisputed Horse of the Year" FROM SCMP 27 JUNE 07
The judges won't really have any choice but to hand the award for HongKong's Horse of the Year to Viva Pataca's owner Stanley Ho Hung-sun atSha Tin on Monday.
As much as they might like to reward Vengeance Of Rain for his superbwin against international competition in Dubai on March 31, the factthat Viva Pataca has smacked him not once, but twice since simplycannot be ignored.
Viva Pataca looked every inch a world-class horse himself in the GroupOne Champions & Chater Cup on June 3, spearing clear in the final200 metres to not only put Vengeance Of Rain away, but do soarrogantly, by a big margin, in course record time.
Jockey Michael Kinane has described him as a better horse thanScorpion, on whom he won the Group One Coronation Cup at Epsom two daysbeforehand, and pledged to follow the horse wherever he races.
Viva Pataca has now won four Group Ones - the 2006 Derby, the 2007Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup and the last two editions of theChampions & Chater.
Vengeance Of Rain, who was crowned World Racing Champion for 2005, cameback from a career-threatening heart problem to regain his mantle. Henarrowly defeated Viva Pataca in a slowly run Hong Kong Gold Cup beforestepping to 2,400 metres and crushing his rivals in the Dubai SheemaClassic, in one of Hong Kong's great international sporting moments.
If he had finished the season there, he would have been Horse of theYear for sure. But the fact he's come out on the losing end in twohead-to-head battles with Viva Pataca since leaves the judges with noroom to manoeuvre. Viva Pataca must be voted champion stayer and Horseof the Year.
So Vengeance Of Rain will again be consigned to the consolation prizeand crowned champion middle-distance horse. Even though his major rivalfor this award will once again be Viva Pataca, he met Viva Pataca threetimes at 2,000 metres and beat him home in two of them.
Absolute Champion should waltz away with the champion sprinters award.His victory in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint, in course recordtime, was the supreme performance of the season by a sprinter.
Medic Power raced through the grades ultimately to a Group Three winthat saw him lower the 1,200m record, but while that may be recognisedwith a nomination, it doesn't merit being placed above AbsoluteChampion, who returned to land the Chairman's Sprint Prize as well.
The champion miler award - where is King Solomon when he's reallyneeded? There are six nominations - The Duke, Armada, Floral Pegasus,Joyful Winner, Able One and Good Ba Ba. This column would ultimatelyboil the competition down to two, The Duke and Armada, with the JohnSize-trained Armada getting the nod in a photo.
Joy And Fun's fifth win of the season should give the DerekCruz-trained three-year-old the verdict for champion griffin, whileMedic Power's 63-point rating rise selects him as most improved horse.
The mystery awards will be in the most popular horse and jockey awards,where more than 236,000 members of the public have cast their votes
凌雨好慘呀:xxx:
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