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‘We Have Managed This Crisis’: Hong Kong Successfully Stages International Races

Hong Kong Jockey Club Chief Executive Officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges saluted Hong Kong's “unique spirit and resilience” after a successful staging of the Longines Hong Kong International Races featuring G1 glory across four world-class features shared between Japan, Ireland and Hong Kong at Sha Tin on Sunday, Dec. 13.

“It is important to have these global events. We are very proud that as a team, we pulled this off,” he said.

“There were some anxious moments and discussions about 'How can we do this?' but in the end, we focused on the result and the results speak for themselves.

“The tracks were in outstanding condition, if you look at the way the horses were handled in quarantine and how the jockeys were brought into isolation facilities, everything went perfectly in challenging times.

“But this is the 'can-do' spirit of Hong Kong and the playing-to-win spirit of the Jockey Club.”

Engelbrecht-Bresges said challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic contrived to make the latest staging of the “Turf World Championships” the most difficult in the history of the Club.

“But the system we created was extremely robust. It all passed all the tough questions of health officials and I would like to thank the government for trusting us,” he said.

“You can have all the processes but, in the end, are you able to pull this off? And people say 'If there's one organization in Hong Kong to pull this off, that's the Jockey Club.”

“And we hope that this gives an example of how maybe other sports can do this.”

Acknowledging the success of Japan with Normcore in the HK$28 million Hong Kong Cup, Danon Smash in the HK$22 million Hong Kong Sprint and Ireland with Mogul in the HK$20 million Hong Kong Vase, Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges paid tribute to the enterprise and support shown by visiting international horsemen.

“I want to give special credit to our overseas friends because it's about trust to send your people, to send your horses on such a journey,” he said.

“To have such an exquisite assembly of equine talent – be it horse, be it jockeys – to come to Hong Kong, we would like to really thank our friends overseas to enable us to stage such a global event.

“If you look at the event today, it went to absolute perfection.

“I think it was absolutely a global sporting event of the highest quality. It showed Hong Kong is one of the fairest places to bring a horse.

“The support we get from Ballydoyle, which is really the leading global racing operation, and that they have success winning with a horse like Mogul and a really good performance by Magical.

“Our Japanese friends must be very happy and there were some people saying you cannot win from barrier 14 on Danon Smash but if you have Ryan Moore on board, he can make it happen.”

Referring to local hero Golden Sixty's devastating HK$25 million LONGINES Hong Kong Mile win, Engelbrecht-Bresges paid tribute to winning rider Vincent Ho.

“Vincent Ho was a shining example of investment in the future,” he said of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Apprentice Jockeys' School graduate, who has risen to global recognition as a world-class rider.

“Vincent has definitely arrived today on the global stage as one of the really top-class jockeys,” he said.

“I'm definitely really pleased to see Golden Sixty show a tremendous performance and he's definitely one of the best milers in the world.

Engelbrecht-Bresges emphasised the Club's determination that “none of our activities should pose a risk to the health and wellbeing of our fans and customers” was unshakeable.

“We have clear guiding principles and with daily assessment, practically from the start of the year, we have managed this crisis and created a Racing Bubble,” he said.

“Everybody bought into this and I want to give credit to the whole team for pulling this off.”

The post ‘We Have Managed This Crisis’: Hong Kong Successfully Stages International Races appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Up-And-Coming Trainer Kent Sweezey Employs ‘The Jerkens Way’ For South Florida Success

Falling back on the knowledge he gained while serving as trainer Jimmy Jerkens' assistant for three years, Kent Sweezey has been making a name for himself while competing in South Florida on a year-round basis for the first time this year.

“We're doing old school stuff with the cheaper horses and, I'll tell you, it's working,” he said.

Fresh off a banner Gulfstream Park West meet, during which he saddled 11 winners from 31 starters, Sweezey visited the winner's circle twice Thursday afternoon and on the first day of the 2020-2021 Championship Meet at Gulfstream last Wednesday.

“We've got a good group of horses. It's been a learning curve. What we have now are a lot of the lesser-level horses, but they're winners. We've got a barn full of winners,” said Sweezey, who will saddle Phat Man for a start in Saturday's $100,000 Harlan's Holiday (G3) at Gulfstream. “They're lesser-level horses. They're not maiden special weight or allowance horses. I've got a couple of those. The 2-year-olds we have did well in Jersey and down here. I hope they keep going and we get some fresh 2-year-olds coming in.”

Sweezey's year-round success in South Florida has been very much a case of making the best of a very bad situation.

“When we stayed down here this year, the COVID thing was going on. I thought this was the one place that was staying open, would continue to run and had good purses,” Sweezey said. “I knew the place, I thought it was a good time to leave horses here year-round.”

Sweezey, who had a larger string based at Monmouth Park during the summer, wasn't able to be as hands-on with his horses at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, as he would have liked.

“I expected to come down every couple weeks and check things out and try to grow my business a little bit, but with restrictions that were put in, we couldn't travel like we wanted to,” he said. “I came down one time early on and had to quarantine for 14 days when I went back to Monmouth. I couldn't keep doing that.”

Sweezey's horses were left in very capable hands with assistant trainers Steve Moyer and Eddie Azate, who also had previously worked for Jerkens.

“The same things I learned is the same stuff Steve Moyer learned. With Eddie it's the same way. We all learned the Jerkens Way,” Sweezey said. “We just need to get the grooms to buy into it. We already know it works.”

Sweezey grew up in Lexington, Ky., where his parents operate Timber Town Stable.

“I did the sales, foals and mares, and yearling prep. I did all that,” he said.

Sweezey went on to work for trainer Christophe Clement for a year, before venturing to Southern California to work for trainer Eoin Harty for three years and returning east to serve as Jerkens assistant for three years.

“As soon as I started at the racetrack, I wanted to work for the best people,” he said. “I wanted to win races. That's what you get up for in the morning.”

Sweezey went out on his own in 2017 and has saddled 128 winners, including Phat Man, who gave him the first graded-stakes success while winning the Fred Hooper (G3) at Gulfstream Park last January.

Sweezey, who saddled Phat Man for runner-up finishes in last season's Harlan's Holiday and Gulfstream Park Mile (G2), is hoping to build on that success during the 2020-2021 Championship Meet and beyond at Gulfstream.

“We're big-time looking forward to the meet and we love Palm Meadows,” Sweezey said. “We're always trying to pick up new owners. We've had some calls, because they see us down here. This is a constant. The good thing about South Florida is it's a constant.”

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Turf Paradise Getting Horse Influx From Pandemic Affected Tracks

By the time Turf Paradise opens Jan. 4 for Arizona’s first live Thoroughbred racing since March 14, track management projects the horse population could top 1,200 for the five-day weekly, 84-date meet that runs through May 1.

Turf Paradise general manager Vincent Francia said during the Dec. 10 Arizona Racing Commission meeting that 664 horses are currently stabled on the grounds, adding that “I expect by the end of the month that that figure is probably going to double.”

Francia explained that Turf Paradise is the recipient of a mixed blessing related to COVID-19 pandemic closures at other racetracks.

Chiefly, he said, interest has been sparked from outfits at Golden Gate Fields (which is currently closed for racing until at least Dec. 26) and from tracks in New Mexico (where Zia Park just resumed racing after a health-related shutdown and the Dec. 26 start date at Sunland Park has been pushed back at least 30 days because of pandemic-related uncertainty).

“So in the good news department, we’re getting an influx of horses,” Francia said. “And the not-so-good news [is] both of those areas have been hit pretty hard with by the virus.

“So we’re having to revise and amp up how we’re going to handle people coming into the backside and the track,” Francia continued. “And by that I mean we’re looking at making sure [licensees] have a negative coronavirus test before they come on [to the backstretch]. And once they get here and get their horses in, then they get [another] test. We’re taking that extra step…and we need to keep everyone here at Turf safe if we are going to get through this race meet.”

Leroy Gessmann, who serves as both the Arizona Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (AZHBPA) executive director and the National HBPA president, said that in terms of compliance, “the majority of people want to stay safe and the majority of people are following the guidelines.”

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Soumillon Off Sunday Mounts In Hong Kong Pending More COVID-19 Tests

The Hong Kong Jockey Club has been informed by jockey Christophe Soumillon that he has been requested by the Department of Health to undergo further COVID-19 tests.

It is unknown at this stage when the testing will be completed and when Soumillon will be released from quarantine.

Soumillon was licensed by the club on the basis that he would undergo a mandatory 14 days' quarantine under the compulsory quarantine of persons arriving at Hong Kong from foreign places regulation (Cap. 599E). Soumillon arrived at Hong Kong on Nov. 26 and commenced this 14 days' quarantine.

Despite having cleared his initial COVID-19 test on his arrival, he has yet to receive an unconditional release from quarantine in order to ride on this coming Sunday.

The Club has taken advice from its chief medical officer. Given these circumstances the stewards have decided to stand him down from Sunday's riding engagements. The club is in the process of informing the relevant connections. The change of riders will be published in due course.

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